Criminal Careers and "Career Criminals," Volume II (1986) / Chapter Skim
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3. The Relationship of Problem Drinking to Individual Offending Sequences
3. The Relationship of Problem Drinking to Individual Offending Sequences
Pages 89-120
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From page 89... ...
It has not been established, however, that the problem drinking explains serious involvement in crime. Indeecl, the funclamental difficulty of this paper will be distinguishing the pervasive use of alcohol among offenders from the explanatory relevance of alcohol use to inclividual offending sequences.
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From page 90... ...
Most of the promise of completed and ongoing longitudinal research to cletermine whether and how alcohol use affects individual offending sequences remains to be realizecl. METHODOLOGICAL ISSUES Definition and Measurement of Problem Drinking Problem drinking is the main inclependent variable in this analysis.
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From page 91... ...
This is also consistent with the focus on indiviclual offending sequences rather than particular criminal events. Some Tong-term effects of drinking are well known.
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From page 92... ...
Petersilia, Greenwood, and Lavin (1978) , for example, found that alcohol abusers were arrested for 12.1 percent of the offenses they committed compared with 2 to 3 CRIMINAL CAREERS AND CAREER CRIMINALS percent for drug abusers ant!
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From page 93... ...
. This classification permits examination of the relationship between problem (lrinking and indiviclual offending sequences.
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From page 94... ...
Because women probably commit less than one-fifth of the serious crimes and because the gender variable does not appear to bear on the problem drinkingcriminal career relationship, gentler is not considered here in any detail. Making Inferences About Alcohol Effects Despite years of study, a great (leal remains to be understood about the behavioral effects of alcohol use both acute (short-term)
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From page 95... ...
The major points to be ma(le about previous work on the expectancy, disavowal, and attributive aspects of alcohol's effects on behavior are that perceptions and interpretations complicate the causal-inference task and make it difficult to assess the validity of self-perceptions of alcohol's effects. Alcohol occupies unique phenomenological territory, an(1 caution is warrantee!
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From page 96... ...
Illegal purchase or consumption of alcoholic beverages, however, is not of interest here unless it is associated with other criminal behavior during the juvenile years or later in the life cycle. Specifically, this review focuses on the following questions: Does the age at which drinking begins have CRIMINAL CAREERS AND CAREER CRIMINALS any power to predict involvement in serious crime?
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From page 97... ...
spirits consumption. During the interviews, 21 percent aclmitted minor criminal offenses; 6 percent reported committing theft and burglary; 2 percent reported committing assault and malicious damage; 9 percent had been convicted of crimes; and 5 percent were known for public drunkenness.
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From page 98... ...
In summary, the evidence from general-population studies of juveniles is that problem drinking covaries with other forms of deviance and with serious criminal behavior. The relationship of problem drinking to deviance and crime is best conceived as one involving a common etiology in the juvenile years.
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From page 99... ...
Two studies give more specific insights about the relationship of problem drinking to individual offending sequences for juveniles. VirkLunen (1977)
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From page 100... ...
The offense-specific fin(lings should be viewed as tentative because of sample size (N = 14 aTcohol-involvec3 offenders and because of the challenging cognitive task involvecl in reconstructing criminal careers over very Tong periods. CRIMINAL CAREERS AND CAREER CRIMINALS There is more potential in existing Tongituclinal ciata on alcohol use and criminal behavior than has thus far been realized.
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From page 101... ...
Bohman and colleagues found that the correlation between age of onset of first alcohol abuse and first crime was .61. In 18 percent of cases the first crime came before first alcohol abuse; in 22 percent of cases, alcohol abuse preceded crime; and in 60 percent of cases the two occurred within 2 years of each other.
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From page 102... ...
CRIMINAL CAREERS AND CAREER CRIMINALS Robins an,(1 her colleagues have analyzecI data on alcohol abuse and crime for a sample of 223 black men born in St. Louis between 1930 and 1934 (Robins, Murphy, and Breckenridge, 1968; King et al., 1969; Robins, 1972; Robins and Wish, 1977~.
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From page 103... ...
03 drinking problem-criminal career relationship, except that the two factors appear to covary.
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From page 104... ...
compared the officially recorded criminaTit,v of the sample of treated alcoholics just clescribed with that for (1) 139 men treated CRIMINAL CAREERS AND CAREER CRIMINALS for alcoholism who hac3 no convictions for drunkenness or alcoholism and (2)
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From page 105... ...
The authors interviewed the inmates and dividect them into heavy drinkers and others. (The authors do not clearly describe how the inmates' drinking behavior was cIassified.)
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From page 106... ...
One way to conceptualize the covariation of problem drinking ancI criminal behavior is to view each of the factors CRIMINAL CAREERS AND CAREER CRIMINALS as aspects of a configuration of behaviors that make up a deviant life-styTe. In other worcis, drinking problems and criminal behavior simply represent sets of behaviors that occur together as a result of a common etiology or life orientation.
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From page 107... ...
Temporal Order of Problem Drinking and Criminal Careers. Some of the empirical evidence indicates that criminal behavior is more likely to precede problem drinking than the reverse (Guze et al., 1962; Robins, Murphy, and Breckenricige, 1968; Lindelius anc3 S
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From page 108... ...
"criminal alcoholics may represent a different variety of alcoholism from that seen in psychiatric private practice or hospital alcoholism wards." The above evidence suggests that problem (lrinking is important to inclividual offending sequences only for some types of people. Stated another way, there appear to be individual characteristics that increase the likelihood that serious criminal behavior related to problem drinking will occur.
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From page 109... ...
Approximately two-thircls of the type-4 offenders were currently incarcerated for a violent crime. Langan and Greenfeld compared the typed inmates with the three other types on the basis of drinking at the time of current incarceration offense, drunk at the time of current incarceration offense, and ever treated for alcohol abuse.
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From page 110... ...
sample may start late and stop quickly. The best tentative conclusion about the effect of problem drinking on serious criminal behavior by those over age 3S is that there is no relationship.
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From page 111... ...
However, the evidence reviewed here, as well as other evidence, demonstrates aclequately that problem drinking is associated with criminal behavior, especially violent criminal behavior in the young adult years. The question remains of how much crime is explained by problem drinking.
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From page 112... ...
They show how unemployment and crime are related to each other in a reciprocal way. Problem drinking is likely to have a similar rela CRIMINAL CAREERS AND CAREER CRIMINALS tionship to criminal behavior.
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From page 113... ...
on criteria that also clefine criminal behavior. Examples of ASP ctisorcler diagnostic criteria that are also crime categories are assault, theft, vanclalism, and driving while intoxicated.
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From page 114... ...
The Treatment Outcomes Prospective Study, which includes data for more than 11,000 individuals who entered publicly funcled drug abuse treatment programs in 197~1981, is also a potentially valuable resource.2 The ciata include a retrospective longitudinal dimension and prospective follow-up of a substantial percentage of the 11,000 subjects. Detailed data were collected about alcohol and drug use and self-reported involvement in serious crime.
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From page 115... ...
Collins, J., ed. 1981 Drinking and Crime: Perspectives on the Relationship Between Alcohol Consumption and Criminal Behavior.
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From page 116... ...
Washington, D.C.: American Statistical Association. Institute for Scientific Analysis 1978 Drinking Patterns and Criminal Careers: A Study of 310 Imprisoned Male Felons.
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From page 117... ...
Report prepared for the National Institute on Drug Abuse. Research Triangle Park, N.C.: Research Triangle Institute.
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From page 118... ...
1980 The MacAndrew Scale as a measure of substance abuse and delinquency among ado CRIMINAL CAREERS AND CAREER CRIMINALS lescents. Journal of Clinical Psychology 36(2)
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From page 119... ...
Report prepared for the National Institute on Drug Abuse. Research Triangle Park, N.C.: Research Triangle Institute.
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From page 120... ...
Research Triangle Institute 1976a Appendix to Drug Use and Crime: Report of the Panel on Drug Use and Criminal Behavior. Report prepared for the National Institute on Drug Abuse.
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