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Binge drinking and symbolic interactionism
Binge drinking and symbolic interactionism
CCJ 18 Understanding social problems
Name: Rachel Maruca
Student number: s5116699
Tutor: Alicia Northcott
Extension due date: 13 May 2018
Word count: 1613
This essay will discuss the problematic social issue of episodic, or binge drinking. Alcohol is widely used by young Australians in social settings. Abuse of alcohol can end in binge drinking, drink driving and precarious sexual encounters. Australian tend to endure alcohol as a socially acceptable drug (2018). To understand this issue, Herbert Blumer’s sociological perspective of symbolic interactionism (SI) will be applied. First, the nature, origin and the extent of binge drinking as a social issue will be discussed. Secondly, an explanation of the theoretical framework that is symbolic interactionism. This explanation will include some of the theoretical concepts that have evolved from symbolic interactionism and finally, symbolic interactionism concepts will be applied to the sociological issue of binge drinking.
Alcohol intoxication disorder, also known as binge drinking, has umpteen definitions and these definitions are ever-changing ("Binge drinking (alcohol intoxication disorder) myVMC", 2018). The Australian Bureau of Statistics characterises binge drinking as five standard drinks for woman and seven standard drinks for men ("Binge drinking (alcohol intoxication disorder) myVMC", 2018). Alcohol is acutely integrated in Australian culture and plays a significant role in the social lives of Australians. Its historical roots can be traced back to colonisation (Vuckovic – Kosanovic, 2011). There is significant community concern relating to binge drinking in Australia. One in four adolescents aged between fourteen and nineteen have reported consuming alcohol at levels associated with short term harm on a weekly or monthly basis (Lubman & Maclean, 2011). Over 40% of those aged sixteen to twenty-four have reported consuming more than twenty standard drinks in one sitting (Lubman & Maclean, 2011). Short term harms associated with binge drinking include, alcohol poisoning, road accidents, drownings, blackouts, sexual risk taking and violence (Lubman & Maclean, 2011). Excessive consumption is one of the more prominent health dangers in modern Australian society. Not only does consumption affect short and long-term health but can also affect a person’s ability to work or join in other areas of community life ("4125.0 - Gender Indicators, Australia, Jan 2012", 2018). Binge drinking affects society through damage of property, road incidents and law enforcement intervention. In 2008, the estimated cost to Australia’s health care system, due to episodic drinking, was $15 billion ("4125.0 - Gender Indicators, Australia, Jan 2012", 2018). Between 1995 and 2005, an estimated 813,000 Australians were hospitalised for injury or disease attributed to alcohol and in those same ten years, approximately 32,...
