About 73 per cent of juvenile delinquents committed crimes while under the influence of alcohol and the number of young criminals continues to rise, according to the latest study by the Department of Juvenile Observation and Protection.

About three in 10 young criminals admitted to committing a crime while drinking alcohol, particularly beer, which is the top choice of the inmates queried in the study, said Pairoj Thudtapong, deputy director of the department.

The department, in association with Chulalongkorn University, the Centre for Alcohol Studies, and the Bangkok Metropolitan Administration, carried out the study on 6,126 juvenile delinquents in 76 reprimand centres across the country.

An in-depth interview method was used to look into the major factors influencing the criminal behaviour in those delinquents, focusing on their alcohol consumption habits, said Vanee Korsuwansiri, manager of the research project.

The findings strongly suggest that most of the wrongdoers had drunk significant amounts of alcohol and the crimes were largely due to its influence as up to 76 per cent of the crimes were not premeditated, she said.

One of the delinquents interviewed was a 17-year-old who tried drinking beer at the age of 13, then told himself not to do it again after experiencing a horrible hangover the following morning, said Vanee.

He tried drinking it again at his girlfriend's birthday party where her parents had supplied a crate of the beverage. After the first drink, they became obsessed with drinking beer.

One day while drinking with friends, a song on the stereo made him suddenly and strongly miss his mother and he wanted to return home. As he was intoxicated, a friend would not let him leave and also refused his request to replay the song. The angry boy rushed out, grabbed an axe and slammed it into the friend's head.

"He knew he was kind of a hot-headed person and the influence of alcohol made him lose control of his mind," said Vanee.

Followed by whisky, beer was the number one choice among the young inmates, given the low price and easy access to this type of alcoholic beverage, said the study.

The number of juvenile delinquents rose from 33,308 in 2004 to 36,080 last year, said Pairoj, adding that as of July this year, the number had already reached 25,320.

Aside from the increase in the number of young people who committed crimes, it was also found that the crimes committed had become considerably more violent, said Pairoj.

About half of the crimes committed under the influence of alcohol involved physical violence, robberies and rapes, said Vanee.

"This shows the grave consequences of what adults tend to underestimate - the influence of alcohol," she said.

The latest survey in 2004 showed that 21 per cent of male teenagers, or about one million young men, drank alcohol and that the number of alcohol-drinking female teenagers had jumped by six times in the past seven years, said Dr Bundit Sornpaisarn, manager of the Centre for Alcohol Studies.

Bundit dismissed as "shallow and biased" a study, which said on Monday that alcohol advertising did not effect on young drinkers.

He also challenged the research team of the study to reveal the name of the company that funded it.

A sufficient number of international studies as well as that of the Department of Juvenile Observation and Prevention have proved that advertising has created an awareness of drinking alcohol, which has gradually lured young people to try it, especially in groups, he said.

"Alcohol advertising has an indirect effect on young people in the same way an adult is influenced by auto advertising," he said.

"The person would go for the same brand of car he had seen advertised, especially when friends using that brand recommend it," he explained.

Arthit Khwankhom

The Nation