Background Alcohol use is highly prevalent in Viet Nam, especially among males. Results from a national survey in 2010 showed 70% of Vietnamese males are drinkers, among them 24.1% drinks at harmful level.

Methods This study was conducted in partnership with the People’s Police Academy (PPA) by collecting data from 11 provinces and cities in Viet Nam on all criminal violations 2010 to 2014. A total of 60,657 criminal cases were collected for analysis on association with alcohol use.

Results Out of 60,657 criminal cases, 2,621 cases were identified as associated with alcohol use, accounting for 4.3%. About 71% of the cases are in the age group of 16 to 30, 24% and 5% are in the groups of 30–45 and above 45 respectively.

The most common time of intoxicated cases and public disorder and crime is in the evening between the time frame of 18.00–24.00 hours, accounting for 61% of total cases. In addition, data showed that 1 in 5 criminal cases happened after 24.00 hours.

Policy implications It’s essential to develop and implement a strong national alcohol policy to control the availability and consumption of alcohol in the country to reduce the harmful use of alcohol and criminal violations. It’s also crucial to focus alcohol policy on young adults to educate them on harms of alcohol and minimise consequences of harmful use of alcohol for a healthy population in the long run.