The Journal of College and University Student Housing - Volume 44, No. 3 - 100

Austin Lyke

Framework for Studying Drug and
Alcohol Violations in Student Housing
in addition to the large body of empirical research and survey data on factors affecting
alcohol abuse on campus, recent studies have
documented the effect of living on campus
in marijuana use initiation (suerken et al.,
2014) and that of peers more broadly on otherwise normal use of marijuana (napper et
al., 2015). given that no exact parallel study
exists regarding state-level policy and drug
and alcohol use in on-campus housing,
related research that includes demographic,
behavioral, and other social psychological
perspectives can provide insight into the phenomena analyzed in this study. specifically,
three frameworks at two levels of analysis-
the campus and the state-help untangle the
results from quantitative analyses and inform
prescriptions for administrative and policy
responses to changing drug laws. first, un-

For 2014, 39% of college students
reported at least one instance
of illicit drug use, with 34%
reporting using marijuana,
the highest of any non-alcohol drug .
More than double that amount
at 79.4% reported drinking and
68.8% of full-time college student
respondents had been drunk in
the survey year .
100

derpinning the socio-legal focus of this study
is influential criminological theory linking
higher rates of delinquency in young people
who take part in otherwise banal activities like
riding in a car and "hanging out." osgood et
al. (1996) reveal three environmental predictors of deviant and/or criminal behavior in
adolescents, such as alcohol and marijuana
use, that are undoubtedly part of campus residence life: 1) socializing with peers away from
home; 2) unstructured socializing activities;
and 3) absence of authority figures. Due to
the aggregated nature of the data analyzed in
the models below, it is assumed that college
students arrested or disciplined for drug or
alcohol violations in on-campus housing were
engaging in routine activities that align with
one or more of these criteria.
Beyond individual and group behaviors,
armstrong & hamilton (2013) document organizational variables in (and around) on-campus
residence halls that sustain social and cultural
norms related to drug and alcohol-fueled partying at large public universities, specifically. at
the pseudonymous midwest university (mu)
where researchers embedded in a campus
party dorm (armstrong & hamilton, 2013, p. 6)
for an entire academic year, student class background and attitudes toward higher education
reify organizationally-supported pathways on
campus that ultimately shape individual experiences and class trajectory at graduation.
summing up the party culture at mu, of which
nearly one-third of participants in the study
treated as a vocation (armstrong & hamilton,
2013, p. 84), the researchers note that with
"alcohol, music, attractive people, [and] sexy
outfits" (p. 86) comes a host of negative side
effects. Be it actions that lead to dropping out

T h e J o u r n a l o f C o l l e g e a n d U n i v e r s i t y St u d e n t H o u s i n g
The Journal of College and University Student Housing - Volume 44, No. 3

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of The Journal of College and University Student Housing - Volume 44, No. 3
