Alcohol and Crime

The relationship between alcohol and crime has long been established. Paper Masters' writers are experts at documenting this relationship in research papers on alcohol and crime. Our writers focus on the statistics and sociological consequences of alcohol and how it relates to crime in America.

Historically, drunkenness has been associated with criminal elements in society as well as with the disorderly behavior of otherwise upstanding citizens. Contemporary empirical research supports this common perception. The U.S. Department of Justice reports that 40 percent of violent crimes in America are related to alcohol abuse. The following are interesting facts that you may want to include in your research paper on alcohol and crime:

• The majority of incidents of domestic violence are connected to alcohol abuse.
• Abusive partners have a greater chance of acting violently after they have consumed alcohol.
• Alcohol is most closely associated with impulsive criminal acts.
• The most commonly reported crime in which alcohol is involved is simple assault.
• Crimes that are typically planned, robberies for example, are not as closely linked. Perpetrator intoxication does, however, increase the likelihood that a particular crime will turn violent or become more seriously violent.

Alcohol and Driving

Research also shows that driving under the influence of alcohol is one of the most common crimes related to alcohol. It is probably more prevalent even than alcohol-fueled assault, though assault is more likely to be reported. Alcohol's impairment of reaction time and judgment makes drunk driving particularly dangerous. Each year police across the nation make over one million arrests for people driving while over the legal limit for blood alcohol content. A large portion of traffic fatalities involve a drunk driver. A few decades ago this was true for the majority of road fatalities, but efforts to combat drunk driving have succeeded in reducing that statistic. Still, traffic accidents involving a driver who has been drinking are more likely to be serious than those that do not. Concerns about alcohol consumption at one time led to the failed national policy of Prohibition, which resulted in yet another kind of connection between alcohol and crime.