Crime Reduction - Helping to Reduce Crime in Your Area

Title: Underage drinking and the illegal purchase of alcohol
Author: Paul Bradshaw, University of Edinburgh
Series: Scottish Executive Social Research 2003
Number of pages: 12
Date published: February 2003

Key findings

• Drinking alcohol was found be a commonplace activity for the majority of the sample. Just over 51% of young people admitted to drinking alcohol when they were around 13 years old, and this figure rose to almost 84% by the time they were aged 15.

• Drinking alcohol was also found to be a regular activity among young people. Almost half (49%) drank at least monthly or more often, with half of these (a quarter of the whole cohort) drinking on a weekly basis.

• Just under half (49%) of the respondents had purchased alcohol illegally from at least one source in the previous year.

• The most common source of alcohol for these respondents was a small, licensed grocer or corner shop with 33% having purchased alcohol from one of these outlets.

• 35% of respondents had purchased alcohol from more than one source, and 15% had bought it from 4 or more sources.

• Many respondents had also experienced the adverse effects of drinking alcohol. 49% could not remember some of the things they had done on at least one occasion, and 46% reported being drunk at least once in the last year.

• Purchasing alcohol was also found to be strongly related to involvement in delinquent behaviour and was a better predictor of delinquent behaviour than frequency of drinking.

See the full report, "Underage drinking and the illegal purchase of alcohol", on the Scottish Executive's website

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