The vast majority of people who consume alcohol do not engage in criminal behavior. However, since non-offending behavior is not typically measured, little statistical information exists upon which to base any estimate of the likelihood of committing a criminal act when drinking or following a period of drinking

THE ROLE OF ALCOHOL IN CRIME VICTIMIZATION

About three million violent crimes (including rapes and sexual assaults; robberies; and aggravated and simple assaults) occur each year in which the victims perceive the offender to have been drinking at the time of the offense; about two-thirds of these crimes are characterized as simple assaults.

 

Based on victim reports, on average each year about 183,000 (37%) rapes and sexual assaults involve alcohol use by the offender, as do just over 197,000 (15%) robberies, about 661,000 (27%) aggravated assaults, and nearly 1.7 (25%) million simple assaults.

 

Among violent crimes the offender is far more likely to have been drinking than under the influence of other drugs, with the exception of robberies where other drugs are as almost as likely to have been used as alcohol.

 

Alcohol is more likely to be a factor in violence where the attacker and the victim know one another: two- thirds of victims who were attacked by an intimate (including a current or former spouse, boyfriend or girlfriend) reported that alcohol had been involved whereas only 31% of victimizations by strangers are alcohol-related.

 

Nearly half a million incidents of violence between intimates involve offenders who have been drinking; in addition, 118,000 incidents of family violence (excluding spouses) involve alcohol, as do 744,000 incidents among acquaintances.

 

1.4 million incidents of alcohol-related violence are committed against strangers.

 

Individuals under age 21 were the victims in just over 13% of incidents of alcohol-related violence, and the offenders in nearly 9%.

 

70% of alcohol-related incidents of violence occur in the home and begin with greatest frequency at 11 p.m.; 20% involve the use of a weapon other than hands, fists, or feet.

 

Victims were injured in 60% of alcohol-related incidents of violence, with men and women equally represented, but with men more than twice as likely to have sustained a major injury due to a greater number of severe lacerations.

USE OF ALCOHOL BY CONVICTED OFFENDERS

Among the 5.3 million convicted offenders under the jurisdiction of corrections agencies in 1996, more than 36% were estimated to have been drinking at the time of the offense for which they had been convicted. This translates into just under 2 million convicted offenders nationwide on an average day, including 1.3 million individuals on probation; 85,000 in local jails; 360,000 in state and federal prisons; and more than 200,000 under parole supervision.

 

Male offenders are more likely to have been drinking than female offenders when they committed their crimes, except among inmates of state prisons where women were more likely to have been drinking.

 

The original document from the National Council on Alcoholism and Drug Dependence