Enforcement efforts targeting adults who provide alcohol to minors

Adults age 21 or over are a major social source of alcohol for minors, but little is known use of enforcement efforts targeting adult providers of alcohol. We conducted a national survey of local law enforcement agencies in the U.S. to assess enforcement efforts targeting adults who provide alcohol to minors and what factors were associated with such enforcement efforts. We randomly sampled 1,632 local agencies (response rate 66.3%; n=1082). Our outcome was the proportion of agencies that conducted enforcement efforts targeting adults who provide alcohol to minors. Data were analyzed using logistic regression. We found that 46% of agencies conducted efforts targeting adults who provide alcohol to minors. Enforcement efforts were more common among agencies that: (1) more highly prioritized enforcement of underage drinking laws (p<0.001); (2) targeted primarily those who provided alcohol to minors vs. only the minor themselves (p=0.003); (3) had a division specifically devoted to enforcement of alcohol-related laws (p=0.036); (4) had a higher percentage of total annual resources devoted to underage drinking (p=0.052); and (5) perceived underage drinking was common in their jurisdiction (p=0.044). Having a social host liability law was also associated with conducting increased enforcement efforts aimed at adult providers of alcohol (p=0.023). Given that less than half of local law enforcement agencies are conducting efforts targeting adult providers of alcohol, an increase in these efforts, as well as an increase in focus and resources for underage drinking enforcement in general, may help to reduce underage drinking and related problems.