March 29, 2024

Science - From the age of 16, there is a clear increase in criminal offenses involving alcohol - Knowledge

Science – From the age of 16, there is a clear increase in criminal offenses involving alcohol – Knowledge

Essen (dpa) – With the increase in alcohol consumption by adolescents aged 16 and over, according to a recent study, the number of crimes while drunk is also increasing by leaps and bounds.

Participation in criminal offenses such as minor and serious bodily harm, vandalism and theft under the influence of alcohol increases by about 16 percent at age 16 — when the minimum age for purchasing beer, wine and sparkling wine is exceeded, according to an assessment by the RWI-Leibniz Institute in Essen.

The increase is observed in both young women and men, with the latter committing more than 90 percent of crimes under the influence of alcohol, as stated in the work of Fabian Dehus, published in the “Journal of Health Economics.”

Especially on weekends, when young people do not participate in an organized daily school life, an increase in criminal offenses can be observed while drunk, according to Hoos. The study is based on surveys from 2005 to 2015, which the author put together regarding police crime statistics for the same period.

The analysis also shows that adolescents in the high-consumption country of Germany, when they reach one of the lowest age limits in the world of 16, are consuming alcohol more and more frequently than before. In addition, from a critical alcohol level, the likelihood that young people will commit a crime for the first time increases, according to Deuce. It says: “Establishing a higher minimum age for alcohol consumption can help reduce the number of young people becoming criminals while protecting their health at this important stage of development.”

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Specialists, on the example of crime prevention, have repeatedly demonstrated in studies the relationship between alcohol consumption and the tendency to crime for different age groups and types of crime. In 2020, the Federal Criminal Police Office registered 19,684 suspects under the influence of alcohol. In the field of violent crime alone, about one in four suspects were intoxicated.

© dpa-infocom, dpa: 211218-99-430129 / 2