Drinking Behavior and Tendency of Disobedience to the Laws/Disciplines Concerning Alcohol Consumption among Policemen in Bangkok

Abstract

This research aims to study drinking behaviors and tendency of disobedience to the laws/disciplines concerning alcohol consumption among metropolitan policemen. The method was a survey quantitative research. The population was the police officers working in Bangkok metropolitan, both commissioned and noncommissioned officers. A multistage sampling technique, together with proportion to the population size of each police station and each commissioned rank, was used for obtaining the study sample. For data collection, the data was collected by using a self-administrated questionnaire. Finally for data analysis, there were 417 respondents completing the questionnaires.

This study found that about 50% of the respondents regularly consumed alcohol. Approximately one-third of them had been drinking alcohol since they were young. The three most reasons for the initiating were to socializing, just trying and imitating their friends. In addition for presently drinking, 90% of them claimed that they had to drink because of socializing. Three most popular alcohol beverages were beers, foreign brand spirits and Thai brand alcohol respectively. The most popular place for drinking was a restaurant (60.4%), and only 5.7% of them drinking alcohol in their workplaces. More than half of the respondents would like to join drinking with colleagues in the evening after work. Regarding the alcohol consumption assessment and developing by the Department of Mental Health, it was found that an estimated 38% of the respondents were at high risk of becoming alcoholic, and about 24% was classified as in the being in the group that drinking could cause them harm. When considering the tendency of disobedience to the laws/disciplines concerning alcohol consumption, it was found that about half of the respondents were in moderate-level group (53.7%), and there was a significant association between the tendency of disobedience to the laws/disciplines and drinking levels.

The findings suggest that drinking behavior among Thai policemen seem to be a major constrain of law enforcement as related to alcohol consumption control.

Keywords: disobedience to the laws/disciplines concerning alcohol consumption, drinking behaviors, policemen