Annotated bibliography

So, for our Community Inquiry Project for my urban education class, I decided to look at the prevalence of alcohol and drug use in Newark Public Schools. That topic will likely evolve somewhat as I do additional research into it. This post is an annotated bibliography of an article I found discussing adolescent alcohol use and violence.



Felson, Richard (2008, May) The Influence of Being under the Influence: Alcohol Effects on Adolescent Violence. Journal of Research in Crime and Delinquency, 45(2), 119-141.
http://jrc.sagepub.com/cgi/reprint/45/2/119

This article examines the relationship between intoxication, chronic alcohol use, and violent behavior in an attempt to determine if the link between adolescent violence and alcohol use is causal or spurious. The authors used data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health to base their conclusions on. There were three basic issues the authors focused on: First, how much of the relationship between frequent alcohol use and violence is due to the causal effects of intoxication, and how much is spurious? Second, whether intoxication has a greater effect on violence among adolescents who already have violent tendencies. And lastly, whether the effects of intoxication depend upon the adolescent’s sex and other social-demographic characteristics.
The authors conclude that the relationship between adolescent violence and alcohol use is mostly spurious, i.e. one does not lead to the other. Drinkers are actually more likely to engage in violence while sober than while drinking. Overall, people who drink are more likely to engage in violence, independent of whether they are drunk of sober at the time.
Additionally, the authors concluded that alcohol has a stronger effect on more violent-prone adolescents, potentially facilitating violent behavior among those who are already inclined to behave that way. The authors also allowed the possibility that alcohol could be used as an excuse for violent behavior.
On the third basic issue, the authors concluded that, in adolescents, there was no evidence that alcohol had a greater effect on boys than girls in relation to violence. They did, however, find both age- and race-related differences. Alcohol had greater effects on older adolescents versus younger, and on White adolescents versus black adolescents.
Overall, I found this to be an interesting article. I wasn’t particularly surprised by any of their findings, because they fit in well with my personal experience and observations. Personally, I believe that certain types of personality defects can manifest through both violent actions as well as self-medication through alcohol. The authors touched upon an overarching link between alcohol and violence, but they stopped short of hypothesizing anything specific.