Increasing Concern of How Alcohol Affects the Rate of Interpersonal Violence and Its Impact on Biologis - Research Paper Example

? The Increasing Concern of How Alcohol Consumption Affects the Rate of Interpersonal ViolenceAlcoholism is regarded as a genetic disease that impacts different individuals in different ways contingent upon their case history and transmitted genetic blueprints. In fact, alcoholics possess a hereditary condition that makes them susceptible to alcoholism and, therefore, require a qualified treatment (Lavitt). Alcohol-related crime is a famous term normally employed to denote two main classes of offences. Firstly, the offences that are alcohol-defined are driving while being excessively drunk or other drunkenness perpetrations. The second category includes offences where the alcohol consumption is considered to have played a part such as the offender being under the alcohol’s influence at the time of offense. Some offences usually committed by individuals under alcohol influence include criminal damage, interpersonal violence, assault, etc. (Institute of Alcohol Studies 3). It has been found that the use of drugs and alcohol by young people institutes lots of risks such as academic, personal, safety, health, relationships and the danger of getting addicted. However, one of the most important risks is the association between drugs, alcohol and crime. In fact, millions of people each year are victims of alcohol or drug related crime, admitting millions of youngsters. Around 600,000 students, of ages between 18 and 24, are attacked by another intoxicated student. Among the campus crimes, around 95% involve the consumption of alcohol by the assaulter or the victim, or both. Moreover, 90% of associate sexual assault and rape on campus involve the consumption of alcohol by the assaulter or the victim, or both. This paper is more focused on the trend of alcohol consumption within Finland; therefore most details will include the research on Finns with regards to alcohol consumption. In Finland, the alcohol consumption is around 9 liters of hundred percent alcohol equivalents per capita, which is the mean level of consumption in western developed countries. One tenth of the whole population that drinks consumes almost half of the average amount. Around 200,000 people are regarded as heavy drinkers. Around 1,500 individuals are noticed to die due to an ailment associated with alcohol consumption, and around 1,000 individuals die due to violence and accidents as a result of alcohol consumption. Alcohol consumption is more common among the young population (Karlsson et al. 498–508). For the past twenty years, various societal changes have regulated the Finnish alcohol discipline. Three most prominent changes include the forceful economic upswing that occurred in the last years of 1980s, as Finland went through a serious economic recession in the early 1990s. Similarly Finland united with the European Union (EU) in January 1995, which presumed a novel Alcohol Act. The epoch of sixty years of extensive alcohol monopoly arrangement was ended by this Act, but Alko, the state owned alcohol monopoly, still remained with its exclusive right of off-premise sale as a retailer. Moreover, in January 2004, the traveler’s import quotas for alcohol were abandoned from the other EU members, while in March the excise duties on alcohol were declined and then Estonia was made an EU member in May of the same year (Karlsson et al. 497). Significant tax changes in the excise duties on alcohol, the easily accessibility of alcoholic beverages as well as the alterations to alcohol administration had influenced greatly the alcohol policy in Finland (Karlsson et al. 507). Nowadays the social acceptableness of intoxication is diminishing amongst the youth of Finland along with the increased severity of legal penalties for drunk driving. Finns, however, still have repute for weekend tear drinking. Generally, the harmful results of alcohol addiction are divided into chronic and acute effects. Accidents that are caused by single drinking occasions are included in acute harmful effects, whereas drinking for long period cause chronic harmful effects. This chronic effect includes liver diseases. Particularly, in Finland these long-term drinking effects have increased. Simultaneously, the main cause of the death of working aged women and men is the diseases related to alcohol and accidental alcohol poisonings (Karlsson et al. 504). This practice is more eminent among men and the extent of this practice is so high that it interrupts family life and slows the social advancement accomplished by women. Though the per capita alcohol consumption of Finns is around the European average, the relative rates of alcoholism and the social and medical problems associated with alcohol consumption are very high (Arvenpa). The Finns constitute a culturally, linguistically as well as genetically isolated population that could be extensively informative for examining the genetic apparatus inherent in the behavioral growth and disorders. Being a genetically isolated population due to limited emigration and immigration for a long period of time provides specific advantages in the gene pool of the current population. For instance, recent evidence proposes that mutations which are linked with some specific diseases have happened with a noteworthy consistency in the Finnish population, particularly in distant regions of the sparingly populated country. Therefore, Finland provides unusual chances in analyzing both environmental and molecular genetics influences on alcoholism risk. For example, some alcohol-associated genes are in particular predominant in specific geographic or ethnic groups. Impulsiveness is a personality trait that is found to have an extreme linkage with criminal and violent behavior. The genetic change (mutation) found exclusively in the Finnish population is revealed three times more frequently in violent criminals as compared to the psychologically healthy individuals. Nevertheless, the researchers argue that the genetic mutation itself does not induce impulsivity but may participate in collaboration with factors such as alcohol consumption, stress and gender. As found in a recent exploration, an uncommon variation in the HTR2b gene, associated to rigorous impulsiveness, is discovered almost only in the Finnish population (Lavitt). Nearly all these critically impulsive people were found to be alcoholic and were found to have encountered the worst impulsive troubles while they had been in drunken state. On an individual basis, mutations in two genes for sensory receptor to neuropeptide Y (a neurotransmitter), connected with strain and terrible withdrawal indications from alcohol, are usual to approximately one-fourth of the Finnish population (Pappas). In a research involving Finnish adolescents, substantial regional variations in the incidence of alcohol consumption among adolescents were found. For instance, the incidence of alcohol consumption at 16 years of age was associated to the extent of urbanization of the residential area of adolescents, with considerably less regular drinking amongst those residing in the rural areas. In a similar way, in the FinnTwin16 research, around 30% of twins was found to be abstinent, residing in 3 rural regions in northern Finland, as compared to around 17% of twins residing in Helsinki and its surrounding areas. Therefore, it was found that socio-regional setting significantly impacted the preponderance of abstention in twins in their mid-adolescence. Along with abstinence, it was found that the level as well as frequency of alcohol consumption was influenced by the socio-regional influences. These influences entailed differences in the availability of alcohol, population density and regional distinctions in religious practices and beliefs that regulated approach towards alcohol and its consumption (Rose 139–143). According to neurobiologists, an increase in impulsive violence is caused by low serotonin activity in the brain. In addition to this, Matti Virkkunen in his research at the Department of Psychiatry, Helsinki University Central Hospital, found that hundreds of wrongdoers (Finnish prison convicts) and their fellows consistently have strong connections between low serotonin activity and type-2 alcoholism which contributes to suicide and impulsive violence (Rossby). The Finnish population provides an opportunity of extensive exploration into the genetic and environmental association of alcoholism. As evidenced from research, certain genetic mutations have been observed in the Finnish population, which are attributed to impulsivity. Thus, alcoholism is found to be associated with interpersonal violence, campus crimes and deterioration in personal and social lives. The trend of alcoholic consumption is a significantly interesting area of study where biologists are making efforts to explore more and more. This linkage provides that prevention plans should be introduced on a large scale to decrease the alcohol consumption within individuals and restrict it completely while driving. Governments should enforce such severe legal penalties for drunk driving and frame strict regulations in this regard. Alcohol consumption should be declined by imposing taxes on the sale of alcoholic beverages. In this way the youth can be restricted from unusual alcohol consumption and the crime and accident rates will be declined. Works Cited Arvenpa, Robert J. “Finland.” Countries and Their Cultures. 2013. Web. 7th April, 2013. http://www.everyculture.com/Cr-Ga/Finland.html. Institute of Alcohol Studies. “Alcohol Related Crime and Disorder.” IAS Factsheet. 2010. Web. 7th April 2013. http://www.ias.org.uk/resources/factsheets/crime_disorder.pdf. Karlsson, Thomas, Makela, Pia, Osterberg, Esa, and Tigerstedt, Christoffer. “A New Alcohol Environment Trends in Alcohol Consumption, Harms and Policy: Finland 1990–2010.” Nordic Studies on Alcohol and Drugs 27 (2010) : 497–513. Web. 7th April, 2013. Lavitt, John. “The Genetics of Alcoholism Validate the Need for Alcohol Dependency Treatment and the Disease Model of Alcoholics Anonymous.” ONE80CENTRE. 29 Nov. 2012. Web. 7th April 2013. National Council on Alcoholism and Drug Dependence, Inc. “Alcohol, Drugs and Crime.” 2013. Web. 7th April, 2013. http://www.ncadd.org/index.php/for-youth/drugs-and-crime/230-alcohol-drugs-and-crime. Pappas, Stephanie. “'Impulsive' Gene Identified in Finnish Men.” LIVE SCIENCE. 22 Dec. 2010. Web. 7th April 2013. http://www.livescience.com/9197-impulsive-gene-identified-finnish-men.html. Rose, Richard J. “A Developmental Behavior-Genetic Perspective.” Alcohol Health & Research World 22.2 (1998): 131–143. Web. 7th April, 2013. http://pubs.niaaa.nih.gov/publications/arh22-2/131-143.pdf. Rossby, S. Paul. “The Biology of Violence: Serotonin, Alcoholism, Hypoglycemia.” Rossby & Associates: Neurobiology of Violence. 2002. Web. 8th April. 2013. http://www.death-penalty-mitigation.com/biology-of-violence.html. Read More