The American Medical Association reports that 11 million young people under the age of 21 consume alcohol. About 50 percent drink heavily, amounting to five or more drinks in one sitting, up to two times in a 14-day period. Underage drinking is a leading factor in causes of death amongst teens. It contributes to homicides and date rape.
Awareness
One popular program for kids, Drug Abuse Resistance Education (D.A.R.E), decided to take on youth substance abuse and violence. Daryl Gates, former chief of the Los Angeles Police Department, founded D.A.R.E in 1983 to help kids resist using and selling drugs. Today, their mission statement is to give kids the skills they need to avoid involvement in drugs, gangs and violence. D.A.R.E specially trains uniformed officers to go into classrooms, starting in kindergarten to 12th grade, to talk to kids about the dangers of drugs and violence. For many kids, reports D.A.R.E, this is their first introduction to law enforcement in a positive way. In recent years, D.A.R.E began including instruction on self-defense and how to react in dangerous situations. Additionally, courses that can run for 17 weeks and multiple school years teach kids how to resist peer pressure and avoid becoming involved with gangs.
Sexual Violence
In 2007, Science Daily reported that alcohol is the most common date rape drug. Date rape, which involves forceful sex by a known assailant, is an act of violence and aggression. According to Kids Health, half of all rapes--of which girls top the list of victims--are committed by someone they know. In an examination of toxicology reports filed at the Forensic Science Northern Ireland toxicology database from victims of sexual assaults during 1999 to 2005, researchers at Ulster University in Ireland discovered that average alcohol levels were nearly three times the legal drinking and driving limit. Alcohol, not date-rape drugs like GHB and Rohypnol, is believed to play a role in these crimes.
Bad Behavior and Drinking
Some researchers don't think that alcohol is to blame in violence at all. David J. Hanson, PhD, professor at the State University of New York at Potsdam, reports that when males were under the false impression that they drank alcohol, they were more likely to become aggressive. On the other hand, the neurological affect of intoxication has the ability to make someone very friendly and talkative, or very violent, aggressive and angry, according to "Alcohol," an article on Kids Health reviewed by Steven Dowshen, MD.
Alcohol Reduces Violent Thoughts
In 2008, an article published in the journal Addiction Research and Theory, lead researcher Ian Mitchell came to the conclusion that violence while drinking is caused by individual factors and situations rather than intoxication. In experiments with young college students, consumption of alcohol actually resulted in decreased positive attitudes toward violence.
Emotional and Behavioral Problems
In 2000, a report about adolescent alcohol abuse and behavioral problems by Janet C. Greenblatt of the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration points out a link between youth who use alcohol and emotional and behavioral problems. Kids who drink, the report reads, are more likely to fight, steal, drink and drive, ditch school and put themselves in other harmful situations. In regard to trouble adolescents, alcohol was also blamed for being a gateway drug to other illicit substances.
