Criminal Liability

Criminal Liability: The Dram Shop Law
Name
Institution
The level of alcohol consumption in America is high. For instant, in 2003 the total sales of alcohol amounted to approximately $115.9 billion (Wachtler, 2011). However, since the inception of alcohol, it has been linked to a broad range of behavioral wrongs within the society. Since independence, 80 major laws that governed alcoholic beverages were passed in America and in 1920s; the 18th amendment that banned the production, sale, transportation and importation of alcohol was passed. Later in 1933, the 18th amendment was repealed and states took control of the production and sale of alcohol. With the increased use of automobile, drunk-driving accidents rose claiming several lives and as a result, dram shop laws were passed (Insureon, 2014). In this essay, I demonstrate that in deterring drunk driving it’s more socially effective to hold bartenders and social hosts criminally or socially liable for deaths or injuries related to providing alcohol to an intoxicated person or underage and allowing that person to drive.
Every year, roughly 159 million people have self reported that they have been involved in alcohol impaired driving. Approximately 1.4 million out of the 159 million people have been arrested for driving while drunk either from alcohol or narcotics. In 2004, it was reported that 16,694 lives were lost in United States as a result of alcohol-related vehicle accidents and this was estimated as 39% of the 42,636 deaths resulting from traffic fatalities (Cafaro, 2007). In 2006, 22,073 alcohol-induced deaths were reported and this number excluded deaths resulting from accidents, injuries as well as fetal alcohol syndrome. Additionally, 13,491 fatalities related to alcohol-impaired driving were reported and this number excluded injuries as well as non-driving fatalities related to alcohol (Wachtler, 2011). This statistics indicates that driving while under the influence of alcohol is a wide spread crime th...