Self-Defense & Violence Prevention Blog

I just read an interesting report on ScienceDaily about the increased danger for young college women who drink alcohol. Basically, the research shows that females who drink more in their first year of college have a higher chance of experiencing victimization than the females who do not drink.

The research also shows that new drinkers had a greater chance of physical victimization. To me, that implies that females who drank in high-school and college have less of a chance of experiencing physical victimization during college than females who drank less in high-school. I agree with the researchers, who speculated that new drinkers have less social experience and have less physical tolerance for alcohol, both of which increase the new drinkers’ impairment and vulnerability.

Statistically speaking, I think the study may mislead some people into thinking it shows that drinking causes the increased chance of victimization. As far as I can tell, it only seems to actually show a correlation between drinking and victimization, but it does not show that drinking necessarily causes the victimization. In other words, perhaps women who have a higher tendency to put themselves in dangerous situation also have a higher tendency to drink, but the drinking may not actually cause their dangerous behavior.

Nonetheless, if I had to guess, I would assume that both cause each other. I would guess that drinking will cause people to more often make dangerous decisions, and that people who make dangerous decisions will more often choose to drink.

Regardless, I think parents need to teach their children about drinking and social responsibility, both in high-school and in college. Additionally, schools and colleges can educate students about drinking and its effects. This will help the students make better decisions. Hopefully, more of the students will choose to abstain from drinking or drink less, and the others will know how to drink more wisely and safely.

I also think lowering the drinking age would help greatly. Almost no people wait until they turn 21 to drink, and the ones that do usually do not drink much at all anyway. By having the drinking age absurdly high, young adults must hide their drinking. They binge drink more because of that, I believe. Also, they do it without adult supervision and without adults even knowing. It creates a communication gap between adults and the students, which means the young adults do not get advice or help when they may need it most. I think lowering the drinking age to 18 or even maybe 16 would do wonders to help parents and schools teach students responsibility when it comes to drinking.

What do you think?