Alcohol and property crime: exploring the causal nexus

The literature on the relationship between alcohol use and property crime is reviewed. Four sources of data (detailed criminal and drinking histories of 32 men prison inmates, interviews with 67 men imprisoned for robbery, biographies of 10 criminals, and case materials found in scholarly works on "causal" and "professional" property crime) reveal three models of the alcohol-crime link: Drinking at the time of the offense and alcoholism are deterrents to professional property crime because they lead to the perception of unreliability by crime partners and thus serve as barriers to admission to crime partnerships. Certain aspects of the professional criminal lifestyle are conducive to heavy drinking--being unmarried, being geographically unstable, having alternating periods of intense activity and leisure, and having large amounts of money to spend. Heavy drinking provides easy companionship and relaxation to criminals who lack the normal family and work restraints. There is a complex relationship between alcohol use and casual property crime committed in groups. Social isolation leads some individuals to drink to form a "primary group atmosphere." Group participation in crime serves to maintain the cohesiveness of the group. Intoxication facilitates participation in unplanned, low-profit, high-risk crime since it causes group members to focus on the immediate reward of group cohesion and not on the longer-term negative consequences.