18 to enter, 21 to drink

Submitted by Jaime Kasztelan

Underage drinking has always been known as a negative sanction, however is it breaking a norm of society? Can one say that it is deviant behavior to drink underage if most have done so in their lives? Ask a 21 year old when they started drinking, the answer should be when they turned 21, right? Typically that is not the response you will receive. It is usually in their teens that they have sipped their first beer and was introduced to a new thrill or a way to make their parents angry.Over the weekends, to relieve the stress of high school they party hard, experimenting to see just how far they can go. It's the ones that can last the longest who are the top dogs in their sub-culture of misbehavior. As a result, each year it becomes acceptable in those sub-cultures to start drinking and experimenting at dangerously young ages. Police officers, parents and teachers try to educate them in the dangers of drinking and the lives it has already taken but it could be falling on deaf ears. In a better society it would be perfectly acceptable to start drinking at an appropriate age, unfortunately that is not the world we live in. It seems that this form of deviant behavior has become a norm of society.

The fact of the matter is that, in the United States, it is illegal to drink under the age of 21. It is a written law of our society and therefore is one of the highest forms of deviant behavior and should end in a negative sanction. We have come a long way from the 70's era, in which it was easier to underage drink and get away with it. Stories from my parents amaze me of the leniency that was given to them whenever they were caught. However serious the situation they were, in most cases free to go with no form of punishment. The penalty today is much more severe and can stay on ones record for years, often making it difficult to get a job. An outsider would ask, why risk it? The answer is that kids will do anything to be a part of the in-group of society. They want to be recognized by all their peers as the coolest guy/girl at school. This is simply why they comply with the rules of popularity and what you have to do to be accepted. By not taking the risk, they could be viewed as a coward or a wimp and become outcasts. This then results in bullying from their peers and no one wants to go through four years of torture. Either society works to change the positive sanctions given from peer to peer for drinking underage or the problem could reach children at a younger age each year.

Take this image, for instance. Most people would take a look at this and get a laugh or a small chuckle at least. All I know is I wouldn't want my children in a picture like this, making me look like a horrible parent and a contributor to the norm of underage drinking. The images we should be taking a closer look at and taking seriously is this,

When we give our impression management to our peers we shouldn't have to lie. We shouldn't have to do something we know is wrong to only give off the impression that we're cool and deserve respect. Respect should be given in spite of that. Also, who takes the blame for the image above? Who is given responsibility? Is it the individual themselves or can we put the blame on the friend who allowed them to get in their car, or the 21 and over individual who purchased the alcohol? Many would put it on the individual, calling it voluntary participation. While that is true, we can also give responsibility to those who had a chance to stop it and did nothing. This is Milgrims, "bystander effect" in which they assume someone else will take responsibility and do what needs to be done.

There is no way to stop this problem if it is always regarded as typical deviant behavior. Everyone knows that it is going on and chooses to not allow it to happen but not to take any extra steps to stop it. I can take blame for participating in underage drinking. I have received an underage or citation from a police officer and should probably have been given more than that. If you asked me why I take the risk, I would simply tell you it was something to do in high school and became a huge part of my life once I went on to college. So for some it is voluntary, others it is normative compliance to society or it is social control. Either way it is a form of social deviance, one of the worst in fact and needs to be dismissed as a norm of our society.