Alcohol Use and Crime

Throughout human history, alcohol use has been criminalized to varying degrees. Most notably, the Volstead Act prohibited the importation, manufacturing, sale, and transport of alcoholic beverages in the United States from 1920 to 1933. One factor driving alcohol regulation is the association between alcohol use and criminal offending. Alcohol use has been associated with violent and property crime, intimate partner violence, and sexual assault. The majority of incarcerated offenders had consumed alcohol prior to their arrest. Likewise, alcohol use has been associated with criminal victimization, and many victims and perpetrators of various crimes were both inebriated at the time of the criminal offense.