However much it is a cool fad among the freshmen and sophomores, binge drinking is negatively affecting this college in various ways, denting its reputation and appeal. The negative effects include increased assault cases, more cases of sexual abuses, and increased crime levels in our host community. Customarily, binge drinking, which involves episodic sessions where there is heavy drinking, prominently features in frat parties, sorority parties or during and after college football games. Consequently, many students in our college community consider its negative effects negligible to warrant a close evaluation. Nonetheless, these negligible negative effects accumulate in a subtle way to disadvantage every member in this college. However, more worrying is the fact that our host community becomes the major victim despite its generosity at offering us a loving and caring surrounding. Just how is binge drinking a calamity to this college and its host community? The following reasons listed below highlight just how our college's binge drinking has negative effects.
First, cases of physical assault among students feature prominently during parties and during college football games. Typically, these two events involve a lot of binge drinking. Inherent in these physical assaults are the health dangers and even death to the parties involved. For example, alcohol poisoning is chiefly responsible for the admission of many college students into hospital's emergency rooms. It is no wonder that our college contributes significantly to the statistics from the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIH), which claims that an estimated 599,000 students aged between 18 and 24 nationwide are seriously injured in alcohol-related cases. In addition, approximately 1,825 students of similar age bracket die yearly (National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIH)). Apart from the health and death risks posed, the public display of violent behaviors among college students during these football games sets a bad example and precedent to high school and children from the host community. It is no wonder that many property owners in our host community shy away from leasing their real estate to our college students. Their reluctance is justifiable considering the bad influence that our binge-drinking colleagues would have on their children. These alcohol provoked violent behaviors advertise colleges as institutions where lawlessness and social vices reign freely.
Secondly, many reports in this college concerning cases of sexual abuses correlate with victims or offenders who have just participated in binge drinking. Strangely, some cases involve victims and offenders who are unaware that their actions legally or morally constitute sexual abuse. Binge drinking promotes the prevalence of sexual abuse through the mental and emotional incapacitation of the participants. In fact, a study by Christopher P. Krebs et al. established that many victims of sexual assaults in college campuses voluntarily indulge in binge drinking with the full knowledge of its ability to endanger an individual to sexual abuse (Krebs, Lindquist and Warner). Although the majority of these cases are confined within the college campus, there are few cases where criminal residents of our host community have waylaid drunk female students who are barely conscious of their circumstances. Often, the mainstream media promptly report on these incidents, which provoke accusations that our students are promoting indecent behaviors in the community.
Third, crime levels in the form of vandalism, drunk driving, and property damage are pronounced during and after sessions of binge drinking. Incidentally, college football tournaments are the greatest contributors to the crimes of this nature. These three crimes often occur on a daily bases and they lead our host community to incur heavy economic losses. Moreover, these crimes subvert vital communal resources from their core function. For example, vandalism, and drunk driving that cause property damage cases are rarely pursued because non-student witnesses fear retribution from these students. Therefore, the victims repeatedly incur monetary expenses repairing the damages, which would have otherwise been used in other development agendas. In fact, all these negative effects of our college's binge drinking involve a significant proportion of communal resources like the police force, hospital staff, and ambulance services who are frequently at hand to respond to the college's social vices. Consequently, there is a deficit of these communal resources in non-college areas, which gives room for other criminals to maneuver with ease.
In conclusion, binge drinking in our college negatively affects by causing the societal vices mentioned above. Although they are not exhaustive, they are sufficient to dent our college's reputation and appeal.
Works Cited:
- Krebs, Christopher P, et al. The Campus Sexual Assault (CSA) Study: Final Report. Research report. Washington, D.C.: National Institute of Justice, 2007. Document.
- National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIH). College Drinking. Washington, D.C.: National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, 2013. Document.
