Citation

Sterne MW, Pittman DJ, Coe T. Crime Delinq. 1965; 11(1): 78-85.

Copyright

(Copyright © 1965, SAGE Publishing)

DOI

10.1177/001112876501100109

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

Not all alcohol-related offenses committed by youth are equally serious. Liquor law violations are largely an artifact of state laws prohibiting the sale of intoxicating beverages to persons under twenty-one. Studies of teen-age drinking behavior indicate that these laws fail to deter early experimentation with alcohol and often lack either parental or peer-group support. Lowering the age for legal purchase and consumption to eighteen would simplify liquor law enforcement, thereby releasing scarce police resources for the detection of serious crime. Juvenile arrests for other alcohol-related offenses rose 28 per cent in St. Louis in 1950-60, the 'increase suggesting the need for effective and intensive alcohol education in the secondary schools and coop eration between police and social work authorities for selective referral for treatment and re-education of those whose offenses warn of later serious behavior disorders and criminality.