Alcohol and Crime
An Analysis of National Data on the Prevalence of Alcohol
Involvement in Crime
Prepared for the Assistant Attorney General's
National Symposium on Alcohol Abuse and Crime
NCJ-168632 April 5-7, 1998
U.S. Department of Justice
Washington, D.C.
Revised 04/28/98 th
By Lawrence A. Greenfeld
Statistician
This report was written by Lawrence A. Greenfeld, deputy
director, Bureau of Justice Statistics. David Levin provided
substantial assistance in the preparation and analysis of FARS
data from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration; he
also verified the report's findings. Laura Maruschak provided
assistance in the analysis of the 1996 Survey of Inmates in
Local Jails. Cheryl Ringel verified the findings from the
National Crime Victimization Survey. Tom Hester, Priscilla
Middleton, Rhonda Keith, and Jayne Robinson designed and
produced the report. Maureen Henneberg and Yvonne Boston
reviewed the report. Marilyn Marbrook, assisted by Ms. Boston,
prepared the report for printing.
Data analyzed for this report can be obtained from the National
Archive of Criminal Justice Data 1-800-999-0690. Related
reports, spreadsheets, graphs, and information, as well as the
archive itself, can be accessed at the BJS Internet site:
http//www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/
Foreword
The extensive and far-reaching impacts of alcohol abuse on crime
and public safety are only now achieving widespread public
policy attention. This report was prepared to provide
statistical information as background for the Assistant Attorney
General's 1998 National Symposium on Alcohol Abuse and Crime,
which will address many of these policy issues and discuss
approaches that may help alleviate these problems.
Based on this compilation and new analysis of data on alcohol
and crime, we know that nearly 4 in 10 violent victimizations
involve use of alcohol, about 4 in 10 fatal motor vehicle
accidents are alcohol-involved; and about 4 in 10 offenders,
regardless of whether they are on probation, in local jail, or
in State prison, self-report that they were using alcohol at the
time of the offense.
There are, however, a number of positive indicators that
alcohol-related crime is generally decreasing and that most of
those in need of treatment are receiving it. Violence between
current and former spouses, boyfriends, and girlfriends is
especially likely to involve alcohol abuse, and all forms of
violence against intimates, including homicide, have been
declining in recent years. In addition, rates of arrest for DUI
have declined by 24% since 1990. During the last 10 years, the
number of highway fatalities attributable to alcohol-related
accidents has dropped by about 7,000 annually, a 29% decrease.
This report uses a wide variety of sources, including
statistical series maintained by the Bureau of Justice
Statistics (BJS), the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the
National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, and the Bureau
of Transportation Statistics. We are grateful for the
cooperation of these agencies and also want to thank the many
respondents to our surveys throughout the country.
We anticipate that more on the issue of alcohol and crime will
be available in the near future as new data collections by BJS,
including the 1997 Survey of Inmates of State and Federal
Correctional Facilities, are analyzed. BJS has incorporated new
questions into its surveys which will enable a more in-depth
understanding of the alcohol use and abuse backgrounds of
offenders and the nature of the treatment they receive while
incarcerated.
Jan M. Chaiken, Ph.D.
Director, Bureau of Justice Statistics
Laurie Robinson
Assistant Attorney General
Office of Justice Programs
Highlights
This report provides the most comprehensive analysis of
statistical data on alcohol and crime published to date by BJS.
Sources of information include the BJS National Crime
Victimization Survey (NCVS), BJS self-report surveys of
correctional populations, and the periodic BJS censuses of
Federal, State, and local corrections facilities. In addition,
arrest data from the FBI's Uniform Crime Reporting Program and
the most recent data available from the FBI's National
Incident-Based Reporting Program are used to supplement national
survey data.
Finally, the report includes new analyses from the National
Highway Traffic Safety Administration's Fatal Accident Reporting
System (FARS), a database providing detail on more than 2.1
million fatal motor vehicle accidents that occurred over the
last two decades. The study provides the first-ever estimates
of the level of intoxication among drinking offenders at the
time of the commission of the offense for which they had been
convicted.
The role of alcohol in crime victimization
* About 3 million violent crimes occur each year in which
victims perceive the offender to have been drinking at the time
of the offense. Among those victims who provided information
about the offender's use of alcohol, about 35% of the
victimizations involved an offender who had been drinking.
About two-thirds of the alcohol-involved crimes were
characterized as simple assaults.
* Two-thirds of victims who suffered violence by an intimate (a
current or former spouse, boyfriend, or girlfriend) reported
that alcohol had been a factor. Among spouse victims, 3 out of
4 incidents were reported to have involved an offender who had
been drinking. By contrast, an estimated 31% of stranger
victimizations where the victim could determine the absence or
presence of alcohol were perceived to be alcohol-related.
* For about 1 in 5 violent victimizations involving perceived
alcohol use by the offender, victims also reported they believed
the offender to have been using drugs as well.
* Data for 1995 from the National Incident-Based Reporting
System (NIBRS) of the FBI indicate that about half the incidents
described by the investigating officer as alcohol-related were
between offenders and victims who were intimates.
* NIBRS data show that about 7 out of 10 alcohol-involved
incidents of violence occurred in a residence; the hour
beginning at 11 p.m. was the most frequent time of occurrence;
and about 2 in 10 incidents involved the use of a weapon other
than hands, fists, or feet.
DUI/DWI: Arrests and fatal accidents
* In 1996, local law enforcement agencies nationwide made an
estimated 1,467,300 arrests for driving under the influence
(DUI). Arrests for DUI peaked in 1983 when there were 1.9
million arrests. Compared to 1983, the per capita rate of
arrest for DUI in 1996 was 34% lower.
* Declines in DUI arrest rates have occurred for every age
group. Of particular note is the decrease in DUI arrest rates
for those under the age of 21 compared to their rates of DUI
arrest in the early 1980's when States had not adopted a uniform
drinking age. In 1980 persons between 16 and 20 years old
accounted for 10% of licensed drivers but 15% of DUI arrestees.
In 1996, this age group accounted for 7% of drivers and 8%
of DUI arrestees.
* In 1996 there were 17,126 alcohol-related traffic
fatalities accounting for 40.9% of all traffic fatalities during
the year. This is a 29% reduction from the more than 24,000
fatalities recorded 10 years earlier when alcohol was involved
in 52% of the fatalities.
* An estimated 32% of fatal accidents involved an intoxicated
driver or pedestrian (the majority are drivers, however) with a
blood alcohol concentration, or BAC, of at least 0.10 grams of
alcohol per deciliter of blood, the most commonly used
definition of intoxication.
* Over the last decade rates of intoxication in fatal accidents
have declined across every age group. In 1986, there was about
1 driver involved in a fatal accident in which he/she was
intoxicated for every 10,500 drivers; in 1996, the rate
translates into about 1 intoxicated driver in a fatal accident
for every 17,200 licensed drivers.
* Among drinking drivers whose BAC at the time of the accident
was known, 84% had a BAC of at least 0.08 g/dl and 78% had a BAC
of 0.10 g/dl or higher.
* The average BAC among drinking drivers in fatal accidents was
0.16 g/dl. There was a strong relationship between average BAC
among drinking drivers in fatal accidents and prior driving
record -- consistently, those with prior suspensions, invalid
licenses, and prior driving while intoxicated (DWI) convictions
reflected the highest BAC's at the time of the crash. Among
drivers in fatal accidents who had at least two prior DWI
convictions, the average BAC was 0.21 g/dl, the highest of any
group.