A comparative study of alcohol consumers and non-consumers at the time of the offense on adult felony probationers in Nueces County, Texas

Purpose: The purpose is two fold: to contribute to the broad realm of alcohol and crime-related research, by identifying any significant relationship between consumers of alcohol and non-consumers of alcohol at the time a felony offense was committed, and to compare the findings of this research to existing literature. Methods: the methods used in this study were: (1) the collection of data from the Nueces County Adult Probation Department’s intake questionnaire on felony probationer’s socioeconomic and demographic characteristics; (2) by dividing the study sample into two groups, consumers of alcohol at the time of offense, and non-consumers of alcohol at the time of offense; (3) comparing this information from the study sample between selected variables; (4) the two groups were analyzed by testing the ten selected variables with the phi-coefficient and chi-square; and (5) considering all results with a probability of one degree of freedom at the .05 level of significance. Results: 1. The study indicated that there were no significant differences between consumers and non-consumers of alcohol at the time of offense among the variables of age, employment, ethnicity, index crimes, martial status, military experience, occupational level, prior arrest, and sex. 2. There is a significant difference between consumers and non-consumers of alcohol at the time of offense on the variable of education.