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 ...