Voices From The Field Summary

Running Head: JOURNAL ARTICLE REPORT

Voices from the field: The social construction of alcohol problems in inner-city communities
By: Denise Herd
Contemporary Drug Problems
Name of the writer
The study “voices from the field” by denise herd, examines the social construction of alcohol problems, by activists within the communities, throughout the neighborhoods across the country in the 1990s. Alcoholism relates to many social problems, as well as diseases that are fatal to human health, throughout the globe. However, this particular study shows the involvement of communities, to fight against the marketing and sales, and alcohol outlets that are causing social disorders such as crime, nuisance, drug abuse and public
intoxication, within neighborhoods and communities. The study hypothesizes that the role of alcohol outlets, and marketing and sales of alcohol and tobacco products are causing an increase in alcoholism, drug abuse, nuisance, and poverty within the inner cities. Where the independent variables are alcohol outlets, marketing and sales of alcohol products and the dependent variables are alcoholism, drug abuse, public nuisance and poverty. The dependent variables can also be defined as social problems within the community.
The data for the study are from 184 community leaders, and informants spread across the United States, in the cities of Baltimore, Milwaukee, Detroit, Los Angeles, San Antonio, Oakland, and Raleigh. The cities were chosen on the basis of 5 years or more history of activism against alcohol abuse. The funding for the study was provided from the grants of the National institute of Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, and the Substance Abuse Research Policy Program at the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The data was collected through interviews from the informants and community leaders in each of the respective communities. These informants were selected using the snowball sampling techniques. For an individual to be considered for an interview, he or she must be referred by two or more informants. The data collection took almost two and a half years i.e. from 1996 to 1999. Majority of the data i.e. 40 informants each were collected from the Oakland and Los Angeles i.e. from the state of California. The rest of the 104 informants were from the remaining five cities across the country, with 28 informants from Milwaukee, and 17 to 21 informants each from San Antonio,
Baltimore, Raleigh, and Detroit. More than one third of the informants were community activists and volunteered their time. While, almost 40% of the informants were the ones, that were working for alcohol services for pay. About one tenth of the informants, were local or state politicians, 6% were clergy, and the rest 7% were in others category. The majority of leaders and informants, were African American i.e. 67%, 16% were Whites, 14% were Latinos, while only a very small portion of the sample constituted of Asian Americans and Native Americans i.e. 2% and 1% respectively. Among the sample, 52% were male within the age group of 20 to 82, and the mean age of informants was 50. Although, African American drank less than other ethnic groups in the country, however, they experience more alcohol related problems. A key factor in this regard is the poverty level i.e. the more impoverished the African Americans are the more they experience such problems. These informants were interviewed face to face in homes, offices and restaurants. These interviews were tape recorded and were of one and a half to two hours in length. Within the interviews, the informants were asked a series of questions about the history of alcohol related movements within their respective communities. Moreover, the informants were questioned about what motivate people to participate in such movements.

The themes that resulted from the informant’s responses about the motivation factor that brings people together for alcohol movements are concerns about alcohol outlets, crime, drugs, public nuisance. The informants also described the alcohol sales and marketing as a problem. The themes were multilayered and overlapped in some instances. However, the study concluded that the major focus for activism is the alcohol outlets with 28% informants describing it as the problem. Next in line were crime and disorder, with 27% informants describing it as the motivating factor for activism against alcohol. Drug abuse ranked third with 25%. Nuisance problem and community related alcohol problems were fourth with 24% response rate.

The study concludes that alcohol outlets are the major cause of key social problems within the community.
This study looks at the broader aspects of social problem within the community due to alcohol abuse. The study also linked crime with the alcohol problems, and the role of alcohol outlets is of key importance in crime and violence. Alcohol outlets are also causing various other social problems, such as, drunken driving, child abuse and neglect etc. Moreover, the troubles that minority communities put up with respect to the alcohol outlets and advertising were viewed as an indication of social inequity, which heightens the lack of choice of businesses and services. This made the activists define the social problem related to the marketing and sales of alcohol. From this article it could be finally concluded that, by decreasing the sales and marketing of alcohol, and by regulating the alcohol outlets much of these social ills can be diminished from the societies across the
US.
References
Gruenewald, P. J. (2007). The spatial ecology of alcohol problems: niche theory and assortative drinking. Addiction, 102(6), 870-878. doi:10.1111/j.1360-0443.2007.01856.x
Godette, D. C., Edwards, E., Ford, C. L., Strunin, L., Heeren, T., & Kawachi, I. (2009). Social status, gender and alcohol-related problems: the black young adult experience. Ethnicity & Health, 14(5), 479-496. doi:10.1080/13557850902923281
HERD, D. (2011). Voices from the field: The social construction of alcohol problems in inner-city communities. Contemporary Drug Problems, 38(1), 7-39.