Intoxication, Infractions, and Incarceration: An Investigation Into the Relationship Between Alcohol and Criminal Offenses in a Sample of Prison Inmates

This paper aimed to contribute to the existing literature pertaining to the relationship between alcohol and criminal offenses by analyzing a 2016 dataset of state and federal inmates from the Bureau of Justice Statistics. Our analysis examined variables related to alcohol consumption at the time of the offense, criminal offenses, in-prison support (via alcohol treatment and counseling), and various inmate demographics. We addressed two research questions that asked whether alcohol consumption at the time of the offense was related to various offenses and whether inmates who were incarcerated for alcohol-related offenses that are getting help in prison were doing so voluntarily or because they were mandated to. Chi square tests found that, between inmates who did consume alcohol at the time of the offense and inmates who did not consume alcohol at the time of the offense, race and education level were not important demographic variables, but age was. With respect to our first research question, logistic regression analysis identified the offenses of homicide, sex crime, robbery, assault, burglary, drug possession, and other public order offenses as significant predictors of alcohol consumption at the time of the offense. With respect to our second research question, logistic regression analysis found that inmates who are receiving counseling as part of their sentence is a significant predictor of inmates who consumed alcohol at the time of their offense that are getting help in prison, indicating that inmates are receiving support but that this support is not voluntary on their part