Facts
- Alcohol is a factor in half of those accused of homicide in Scotland in 2003
- 426 people were caught over the drink driving limit in Scotland during Christmas 2010
- Alcohol played a major role in 14 out of 18 murders in Strathclyde in 2010
- Half the prisoners in Scotland’s jails was drunk at the time of the offence
- 70% of assaults presenting at A&E were alcohol-related
- Excluding murder, Scots are almost three times more likely to be victims of assault than Americans. England and Wales have proportionately the second highest number of assaults
- 1 in 20 drunken offences result in a conviction
Costs to Scotland
£385m per year in criminal justice and emergency services£418m per year in Human costs (e.g. victims of alcohol-related crime in terms of physical and emotional costs).
Why does crime increase?
It’s not true to say that alcohol causes crime or gets us into trouble. That’s something that only we can do. The effect alcohol has on our behaviour is not only related to the amount of alcohol but also the situation and our feelings at the time. Some people become excitable ,”wild” or angry when they are drunk but others feel depressed, “love everyone” or fall asleep.It appears that in different cultures we learn different ways of behaving which we associate with drinking alcohol. In our culture, we often link drinking with acting aggressively, shouting, flirting, “letting our hair down” and emotional outbursts. This contrasts sharply with our more controlled way of behaving in general. It could be why we use the excuse of drinking to let off steam!
Alcohol, Mood and Behaviour
Alcohol can change our mood, making us feel more relaxed, merry, aggressive, or depressed and suicidal when we are drinking.Our moods affect our behaviour, so the impact of alcohol on our mood will have an associated impact on our behaviour.
Drinking may then apparently change our behaviour at the time, but it can also change our behaviour afterwards.
As our bodies cope with the rapid increase of alcohol in the bloodstream, and then flushing this out again, we can feel jumpy, anxious and miserable.
The next day our behaviour can be affected by this mood swing. For some people this leads them to drink again to dampen these feelings, and this increases their general feelings of anxiety and depression.
This can colour the way they see their lives and everyday behaviour.