Healthcare - Impact of Alcohol

HEALTHCARE

Introduction
Alcohol is one of the issues that have greater impact on the social and legal aspects. In many
areas around the world, consumption of alcohol is considered as a social activity as people
drink to enjoy different life events (Carpenter and Dobkin, 2010). Different cultures have
different beliefs, attitude, norms and expectation regarding alcohol consumption and this
drinking habit is reflected in the behaviours of people who consume alcohol (Horyniak et.al,
2016). In Australia, 63% of population drink alcohol and out of that most of drinkers are
young people and out of that 16% are heavy drinkers (Manning, Smith and Mazerolle, 2013).
Excessive consumption of alcohol by Australian people leads to various social and legal
issues such as increasing crime in the country, poor productivity, and unemployment,
financial issues, higher alcohol related offences like sexual assault, offensive behaviour and
drink drinking. This report includes the discussion on the legal issue of criminal activities in
Australia due to excessive consumption of alcohol and policy changes that can be done in the
country in order to reduce the harm of alcohol consumption. Thus, the following report is
concentrated on the discussion of the single social harm of the criminal activities.
Criminal Behavior
The legal issue that has been chosen for the discussion to study the impact of alcohol is the
criminal behaviour. Alcohol and crime have a close interconnected relationship and the
former influences the occurrence of the latter in terms of the actions, the level of aggression
and the response time (Addiction Center, 2020). Alcohol contributes to criminal behaviour of
an individual as excessive drinking affects the mental state of an individual and due to that an
individual is not able to control his or her actions and reactions to a situation (Foster et.al,
2017). This might resultant into some criminal behaviour by an individual such as robbery,
murder, sexual assault and hindering police. The criminal activities can be categorised as
follows that arise from the irregular consumption of alcohol.
a) Assault: It must be noted that the crime that is most associated with the alcohol
consumption is that of the assault, as the former leads to the enhancement in the
irritability and anger levels (Byrnes, Doran and Shakeshaft, 2012). In the year 2017,
70,000 people in Australia were victims of alcohol assault and 24,000 were victims of
domestic violence because of alcohols. The fact that the 65 percent of the serious
assaults were alcohol related in the year 2010 highlight the grievance of the situation
(SA Health, 2012). Sexual assaults or the non-consensual sexual acts are also the key

outcomes of the alcohol consumption in an irregular manner (Rowe et. al, 2010). The
alcohol is not only consumed by the perpetrators of the crime but also used on the
victims to lower the inhibitions and incapacitate them.
b) Intimate Partner Violence or Domestic Violence: The next popular set of the
criminal activities is that of the violent activities with the family members or the
partners as the victims. There is a close correlation of the frequency, timing of the
abuse and the severity, and the close relationships of the abuser (Doran et. al, 2010).
The alcohol abuse also included the child abuse, in the form of isolating and
neglecting the child by the parents (Dingwall, 2013). In a recent study conducted, it
was observed that the out of the total abuse cases in Victoria, 27 percent belong to
physical , 39 percent were the emotional abuse cases, 12 percent of the sexual abuses
and 35 percent of the neglect cases (Laslett, 2013). It must be additionally noted that
most of the crimes that were reported by victim in 2017 In Australia were related to
alcohol, which shows that because of excessive consumption of alcohol in Australia
domestic violence has increased over the years along with the sexual crimes and legal
issues that follow.
c) Homicides: Apart from the above stated, the research have suggested that the
consumption of the alcohol leads to the increase in the number of homicides in the
country. It is a serious crime that not only evokes political concerns but also leads to
wide public fear (Payne and Gaffney, 2012). Further, the homicides under the
influence of the alcohol differ considerably than the homicides without the alcohol.
As per the research though the per capita rate of homicide has been on a decreasing
trend in the previous two decades, yet consuming of alcohol plays a key role in some
or the other way in the occurrences of homicide incidents (Tomsen and Payne, 2016).
Apart from the above stated, the crimes that are not that serious yet have an involvement
of the alcohol in some way are that of the robbery, breaking and entering, burglary,
accidents and others (Petrie, et. al, 2010). Individuals who are engaged in the above
mentioned criminal activities yet again indulge in the consumption of alcohol as a coping
mechanism, escaping the post-traumatic stress disorder, and to handle the low self-
esteem. Thus, it has been understood from the glimpses of the study conducted above that
the use of the alcohol has enhanced the legal issue of crime in one or the other way.
Moreover, these issues and activities also contribute to the cost of policing services and
cost of welfare (Ridout, Campbell and Ellis, 2012).