Alcohol was invented as a beverage drink just like the others such as soda and juice. Of late alcohol has been abused because people are consuming it excessively. In ancient times alcohol was reserved for special occasions such as feasts but today most people have turned it into their hobby. This paper focuses on the effects that result from excessive consumption of alcohol and why it is important to incarcerate and treat people who commit crimes under the influence of alcohol.
When one drinks alcohol and does something stupid we don’t say that alcohol is bad but rather it’s the drinker who is irresponsible because when one consumes a lot of alcohol his/her judgment becomes impaired thus he/she does not know what is wrong or right. In a family setup alcohol can affect the entire family and in deed it has been the major cause of domestic violence in most homes (Parsons, 2003).
This is how it happens. Most drunkards can hardly take a large portion of their money especially husbands; money is spent on alcohol hence they don’t take care of family needs such as paying water/electricity bills and school fees for their children and when they are confronted by their wives they ascend on their wives with blows and kicks. Most people argue that alcohol helps one to forget his/her problems but that is not true because the only thing it does is to postpone one’s thoughts until when they are sober again.
Jacoby and Youngson (2004) argue that besides the effects concerning violence alcohol has also been found to be a major influence of incest in many families because when fathers get drunk the see all females as equal thus they don’t reckon that they should not be having sexual relationships with their daughters. Such crimes need imprisonment and at the same time treatment in regards to behavior and control. A crime is a crime, whether small or big. It is therefore important to charge people who are found committing crimes under the influence of alcohol.
Alcohol also fosters poverty because drunkards don’t spare a single penny and most of them are normally unemployed. It is obvious that some are fired by their employers because they report to work while they are drunk. Children who are raised by drunkards tend to be rude because they imitate the behavior of their parents. In addition to that alcohol contributes towards absenteeism among parents because they spend their leisure time in drinking dens while they should be with their children. This calls for treatment which is normally administered at rehabilitation centers. People need to be taught about the effects of alcohol and how they can be responsible to their family duties.
When drunkard parents don’t meet the needs of their children they make them look for alternative ways of getting money to cater for their needs. Spielberger (2004) explains that at this point some become prostitutes while others become gangsters. When children get used to seeing their parents fighting they don’t look forward to starting families because they think all women and men are like their parents. Again the same violence affects the education of children because an environment where one of the parents arrives home while shouting at the top of their lungs is not favorable to children. The conflicts that take place at home continue to haunt them even when they are at school hence they can not concentrate.
According to Parsons (2003) alcohol impairs the drunkard’s mind thus when they get drunk they have sex with the females that are most convenient to them without using protection which puts them at the risk of contracting HIV/AIDS. Additionally, alcohol affects the society at large because when a drunkard drives while under the influence of alcohol he/she may cause accidents which may result in deaths of innocent people. This is why traffic officers are equipped with an alcohol detector device to help them identify drivers that are drunk.
In conclusion, those who are addicted to alcohol should be taken to rehab centers early enough and parents should not expose their children to alcohol by drinking alcohol in the presence of their children. When a drunkard is convicted in a court of law he/she should be sent to a rehab centre where he/she can be assisted to stop drinking alcohol because jailing them does not solve the problem because when a convict finishes his/her sentence he/she will walk out of the correctional facilities but will continue to do the same thing. However, some crimes such as incest and battering are severe and require criminal justice to take control
References
Jacoby, B.D. & Youngson, R.M. (2005). Encyclopedia of Family Health. 3rd Ed. New York: Marshal Cavendish
Parsons, T. (2003). Alcoholism and Its effects on the Family. AIIPsych Journal. Web.
Spielberger, D.C. (2004). Encyclopedia of Applied Psychology. Indiana: Academic Press.