Lowered Drinking Age may Increase Assault Risk

A recent study published in the American Journal of Public Health found that decreasing the nation's legal drinking age could increase criminal behavior among young people. More specifically, researchers from the University of Otago in New Zealand found that when the alcohol buying age was lowered to 18 in December 1999 in New Zealand, the number of assaults increased in young men between the ages of 15 and 19.

"Our previous research and three other studies showed deleterious effects of the 1999 law change on traffic injury and this was consistent with studies of similar law changes in Australia, the USA, and Canada. There had been no such studies of the effects on assault which is an increasingly important problem in New Zealand and other countries that have liberalized access to alcohol among young people," said lead author Professor Kypros Kypri, according to Medical Xpress.

In the study, researchers examined medical data taken from hospitals throughout New Zealand, focusing on the number of patients who had been admitted because of assault injuries. The data looked at assaults that had been recorded four years prior to the change in age. The researchers then compared the assault rates in three age groups, including the following: 15-17, 18-19 and 20-21.

Study findings revealed that the assault rates had increased for the age group 15-19. They also discovered that for those 15-17 and 20-21, the new buying age increased assault rates by 25 percent in the younger group. When comparing 18 to 19-year-olds with the 20  to 21-year-olds group, they also found that the younger group's assault rate had increased by 20 percent.

"Increasing the minimum alcohol purchasing age should be considered as a countermeasure for the rising incidence of assault in many middle and high income countries, including New Zealand," Professor Kypri concluded.