In an interview study of 223 young urban Negro men, the authors found that increasing degrees of alcohol use were associated with increasing evidence of social deviance. Absence of the father from the childhood home and failure to complete high school strongly predict heavy drinking in adult life. Heavy drinking, with or without these negative factors, is equally predictive of social deviance. The authors conclude that alcohol abuse is not simply another symptom of social deviance but an important intervening variable in the ghetto cycle of broken home, delinquency, underemployment, and broken home.Abstract Teaser