Description
Drinking is recognized as one of the most important problems confronting students on campus today, with major impacts on health and safety.This book answers crucial questions about why students drink, examines its complex links to campus crime and sexual assault, and offers new insights on how to address the issue.It differs from other studies of college drinking by dispelling the myth that the problem is universal. Dowdall’s research reveals that the incidence of alcohol abuse varies enormously between colleges, and in doing so identifies interventions and policies that have been effective, and those that have failed. His study is also unique in looking “upstream” at the broader cultural, organizational and social forces that shape this behavior, where most studies focus only on “downstream” behaviors, well after students have selected their college and have started drinking. Students and parents can take action to lower the risk of binge drinking by following the book’s recommendations, and consulting the data it provides about alcohol violations and crime at thousands of colleges. For administrators and student affairs personnel, it both defines and illuminates the issue, and outlines effective interventions.
Table of Contents
Figures and Tables Preface to the First Edition Preface to the Revised Edition Acknowledgements 1. College Drinking as a Social Problem 2. Reframing College Drinking 3. The Impact of College Drinking 4. The “Dark Figure” of Alcohol-Related Campus Crime. The Gap Between Reported Incidents and Victimizations 5. Work Hard, Play Hard. College Drinking, Social Life, and Sex 6. Public Alcohol Policy and College Drinking 7. The College Response. Reframing Prevention 8. What More Can Colleges Do? 9. How to Cope with College Drinking. What Students and Parents Can Do Afterword. 2013—Changing the Culture of College Drinking Appendix A. Sources for Further Information Appendix B. Methods and Data Appendix C. Timeline of Important Events Shaping College Drinking Appendix D. Alcohol and Crime Data for Colleges References About the Author Index
