YOUNG-ADULT OFFENDERS, ALCOHOL AND CRIMINOLOGICAL CUL-DE-SACS

This paper compares and contrasts quantifiable data and motivational a ccounts obtained from in-depth interviews with 66 persistent young adu lt offenders, most of whom were also heavy drinkers. It not only demon strates how important technique and setting are in producing results b ut shows how misguided a primary focus on alcohol as a key variable ca n be if the consumption of other psychoactive drugs is ignored. The in creasing significance of alcohol's entanglement in poly-drug use is th us highlighted. Acquisitive crime, violence and alcohol and drug use m ay well be connected, particularly in the lives of persistent young ad ult offenders, but as this study shows the linkages prove extremely co mplex and difficult to describe fully. British criminology, having lar gely retreated from qualitative, ethnographic community-based studies of subculture and deviant lifestyles, is in danger of losing touch wit h these issues. This is worrying not just for criminology but also bec ause authoritative explanations are unavailable to challenge the endle ss allusions to 'alcohol plus young men equals violent crime' which fo rms a key part of the law and order discourses that blame youth for so ciety's ills.