Alcohol-related Violence

Running head: Public Health Management
Alcohol-related Violence

Public Health Management 1
Introduction:
The major concern across the world today is the excessive consumption of alcohol by people
of different age groups and causing violent activities on the streets, restaurants or pubs after
being intoxicated. The issue is becoming more acute day by day. In the recent era, the variety
of alcohols is easily available in abundance at the alcohol shops, restaurants and bars, clubs
etc. (Kypri, Jones, McElduff, & Barker,2011) There are various reasons why people consume heavy quantities
of alcohol. Some of them consume it merely to have fun while others consume it to kill their
anxieties, stress and inhibition. It is nowadays commonly encountered that after heavy
intoxication people lose their conscious and gets into the most harsh and unethical activities1.
Alcohol is perceived as the key catalyst for several violent incidents that are occurring each
new day. This requires the introduction of stringent governmental policies for the
unrestrained usage of alcohol by people of every nation.
Yes, it is true that the issue of heavy consumption of alcohol and its related general public
assaults is getting more serious rapidly. The excessive usage of alcohol does not only affect
health of the consumers but also cause harm to the people who are around them. It leads to
serious incidents like substantial deaths, personal and environmental injuries and other health
problems ( Coid, Ullrich, Keers, Bebbington, DeStavola, Kallis, Yang, Reiss, Jenkins, & Donnelly, 2013). In 2004, it has been
reported by Global Burden of Disease project that there are around 248000 death cases
identified across the world which resulted from severe violence caused by alcohol consumers
(Dvorak, Sargent, Kilwein, Stevenson, Kuvaas, & Williams, 2014). There are various ways in which alcohol harm the
body of its consumers. It interferes in the communication pathways of the brain system of the
human body and making it work in an unusual and insensible manner (Livingston, 2008).Drugs or
alcohols cause severe disruptions to the brain system which changes their behaviour and
mood. After having strong boozing sessions, it gets difficult for the people to think clearly
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Public Health Management 2
and therefore they behave unconsciously and irrationally (Hiller-Sturmhöfel, Swartzwelder, 2004). Also, the
immune system of the people who intakes alcohol on the frequent (generally daily) basis gets
extremely weak that they cannot even handle themselves in the state of intoxication.
Therefore, they start losing their mental and physical balance of their bodies as soon as they
take the drinks inside their body (Zakhari, 2006). As a precise effect of heavy dosage of alcohol use
by the people, it is often realised that drinking assists them to generate a typical sense of
‘’locura’’ which means madness attacks, making them perform violent acts wherever they
stand in that boozed up state. Once drunk, the people really do not care as to who there are,
where they are, how they are behaving, who they stand in front of since they lose their senses.
The violent confrontations of the intoxicated people with the normal person often turns into
serious incidents and crimes such as murders, rapes, severe fights. Also, when a person loses
his conscious state of mind he is more vulnerable to attacks from other people with the ill
intensions such as robbery, sexual assaults etc. The major reason that provokes and
influences the persons to consume drugs and alcohols is their socioeconomic status. The
researches in the related areas have found that people with high socioeconomic position
consumes greater quantities of alcohols than the people who have lower socioeconomic
status. The use of alcohol is further complicated with several other moderating factors like
race, gender or ethnicity. The reports issued by the World Health Organisation in 2014, it has
been revealed that approximately 5.9% deaths worldwide are caused due to the consumption
of alcohol (Hawkins, Catalano, Miller, 1992). The people who are under the arrest of heavy drugs
intoxication are more likely to react to the situations around them in less time as they are not
able to think properly as to what is correct and therefore they enter into interpersonal
violence. There exist a complex set of factors that influences the person’s alcohol
consumption pattern such as their income level, economic status, education level, status of
their employment, neighbourhood and the housing status. The income level of the person has