Acute consequences of underage drinking include unintentional death and injury associated with driving or engaging in other risky tasks after drinking, homicide and violence, suicide attempts, sexual assault, risky sexual behavior, and vandalism and property damage. In addition, these consequences appear to be more severe for those who start drinking at a young age (Reducing Underage Drinking, 60).

Drinking and Driving

• Although alcohol-related youth motor vehicle fatalities have decreased substantially over the past decade or so, youth are still overrepresented in alcohol-related fatal crashes compared with the older population² (Reducing Underage Drinking, 61).

   

• While only 7 percent of licensed drivers in 2000 were aged 15 to 20, they represented approximately 13 percent of drivers involved in fatal crashes who had been drinking³ (Reducing Underage Drinking, 61).

   

• According to Grunbaum et al. (2002), 38.3 percent of Latinos, 30.3 percent of whites, and 27.6 percent of African Americans [in the 9th to 12th grades] rode with a driver who had been drinking alcohol. And 14.7 percent of whites, 13.1 percent of Latinos, and 7.7 percent of African Americans … admitted to driving a car after drinking alcohol⁴ (Reducing Underage Drinking, 61).

   

• [Y]oung people who have been drinking are less likely to wear a safety belt. They are more likely to get in a car with an intoxicated driver: 41 percent of frequent heavy drinkers reported riding with an intoxicated driver, compared with only 14 percent of those who never drank⁵ (Reducing Underage Drinking, 61).

  Homicide, Suicide, and Crime

   

• Alcohol has been reported to be involved in 36 percent of homicides, 12 percent of male suicides, and 8 percent of female suicides involving people under 21—a total of about 1,500 homicides and 300 suicides in 2000. Homicide is the second leading cause of death for 15- to 24-year-olds⁶ (Reducing Underage Drinking, 62).

   

• [I]ndividuals under the age of 21 commit 45 percent of rapes, 44 percent of robberies, and 37 percent of other assaults,⁷ and it is estimated that 50 percent of violent crime is alcohol-related⁸ (Reducing Underage Drinking, 62).

   

• [O]n college campuses 95 percent of all violent crime and 90 percent of college rapes involve the use of alcohol by the assailant, victim, or both⁹ (Reducing Underage Drinking, 62).

  Sexual Activity

   

• [M]ore than 70,000 students aged 18-24 are victims of alcohol-related sexual assault or date rape¹⁰ (Reducing Underage Drinking, 63).

   

• [Y]oung people seem to be aware that using alcohol influences their decisions about sexual behavior: 29 percent of 15- to17-year-olds and 37 percent of 18- to 24-year-olds said that alcohol or drugs influenced their decision to do something sexual¹¹ (Reducing Underage Drinking, 63).

   

• A college survey conducted by the Boston University School of Public Health showed that among drinkers, those who [were first drunk] before the age of 13 were twice as likely to have unplanned sex and more than twice as likely to have unprotected sex¹² (Reducing Underage Drinking, 63).

New research on adolescent brain development suggests that early heavy alcohol use may also have negative effects on the actual physical development of brain structure¹³ (Reducing Underage Drinking, 65).

Youth with alcohol use disorders also performed worse on memory tests than nondrinkers, further suggesting that the structural difference in hippocampus size was affecting brain functioning¹⁴ (Reducing Underage Drinking, 66).

[A]lcohol use during adolescence may have a direct effect on brain functioning: negative effects included decreased ability in planning and executive functioning, memory, spatial operations, and attention¹⁵ (Reducing Underage Drinking, 66).