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An Indian author, Dr. Sethna dealing with society and the criminal, has this to say :(1) Many crimes are caused under the influence of alcohol or drugs. The use of alcohol, m course of time, causes great and irresistible craving for it. To retain the so-called (1) Society and the Criminal by M. J. Sethna 3rd Edn. P.
164.

'satisfaction', derived from the use of alcohol or drugs, the drunkard or the drug-addict has got to go on increasing the quantities from time to time; such a state of affairs may lead him even to commit thefts or frauds to get the same otherwise. If he gets drunk so heavily that he cannot understand the consequences of his acts he is quite likely to do some harmful act-even an act of homicide. Every often, crimes of violence have been committed in a state of intoxication. Dr. Hearly is of the opinion that complete elimination of alcohol and harmful drug habits would cause a reduction in crime by at least 20 per cent; not only that, but there would also be cumulative effect on the generations to come, by diminishing poverty, improving home conditions and habits of living and environment, and perhaps even an improvement in heredity itself. Abstinence campaigns carried out efficiently and in the proper manner show how crime drops. Dr. Hearly cites Baer, who says that Father Mathew's abstinence compaigns in Ireland, during 1837-1842, reduced the use of spirits SO per cent, and the crimes dropped from 64,520 to 47,027. According to Evangeline Booth, the Commander of the Salvation Army, "In New York before prohibition, the Salvation Army would collect from 1,200 to 1,300 drunkards in a single night and seek to reclaim them. Prohibition immediately reduced the gathering to 400 and the proportion of actual drunkards from 95 per cent to less than 20 per cent". And "a decrease of two thirds in the number of derelicts, coupled with a decrease in the number of drunkards almost to the Vanishing point, certainly lightened crime and charity bills. It gave many of the erstwhile drunkards new hope and a new start". So says E. E. Covert, in an interesting article on Prohibition. The ubiquity of alcohol in the United States has led to nationwide sample studies and they make startling disclosures from a criminological angle. For instance, in Washington, D.C. 76.5 % of all arrests in 1965 were for drunkenness, disorderly conduct and vagrancy, while 76.7% of the total arrests in Atlanta were for these reasons(1) Of the 8 million arrests in 1970 almost one-third of these were alcohol-related. Alcohol is said to affect the lives of 9 million persons (1) Society, Crime and Criminal Careers by Don C. Gibbons p. 427-428.