Citation

Gatley JM, Sanches M, Benny C, Wells S, Callaghan RC. J. Adolesc. Health 2017; 61(1): 24-31.

Affiliation

Northern Medical Program, University of Northern British Columbia (UNBC), Prince George, British Columbia, Canada; Human Brain Laboratory, Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH), Toronto, Ontario, Canada; Dalla Lana School of Public Health, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2017, Elsevier Publishing)

DOI

10.1016/j.jadohealth.2017.03.005

PMID

28526372

Abstract

PURPOSE: Sexual-assault crimes, primarily perpetrated by males against female victims, impose a substantial burden on societies worldwide, especially on youth. Given that approximately half of all sexual assaults involve alcohol consumption by the perpetrator or victim, it is reasonable to expect that minimum legal drinking age (MLDA) restrictions might have an effect on sexual-assault patterns. Canadian MLDA laws are 18 years in Quebec, Alberta, and Manitoba (MLDA-18), and 19 years in the rest of the country (MLDA-19). The present study assesses whether MLDA laws might have an impact on sexual-assault crimes.

METHODS: A regression-discontinuity design was applied to sexual-assault crime data (n = 12,980 incidents) from the national Uniform Crime Reporting survey 2009-2013, a population-level registry of all police-reported crimes in Canada. Uniform Crime Reporting data does not include an explicit alcohol involvement indicator.

RESULTS: Nationally, in comparison to males slightly younger than the MLDA, those just older had significant and immediate increases in sexual-assault perpetration of 31.9% (95% confidence interval: 8.7%-54.5%, p =.007). In MLDA-19 provinces, there was an immediate post-MLDA increase of 56.0% (95% confidence interval: 18.9%-90.8%, p =.004) in sexual-assault crimes by males just older than 19 years, whereas in MLDA-18 provinces no significant effect was found. For females, there was no evidence of MLDA effects on sexual-assault crimes.

CONCLUSIONS: Release from Canadian MLDA law restrictions was strongly associated with increases in sexual-assault perpetration by young men. These findings lend support to the potential effectiveness of population-level alcohol control policies for sexual-assault prevention among youth.

Copyright © 2017 Society for Adolescent Health and Medicine. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Language: en

Keywords

Alcohol; Crime; Minimum legal drinking age legislation; Sexual assault; Sexual violence