Alchohol stores associated with increased levels of violence in "disorganised" communities

Submitted by Robert-Huxford on Thu, 08/09/2011 - 9:09am

|Disorganization, marked by higher percentages of people living in poverty and in women-headed households with children and more renters, were hit the hardest by the presence of the liquor establishments.

In earlier research, Pridemore and Grubesic found that adding one off-licence alcohol sales site per square mile would create 2.3 more simple assaults and 0.6 more aggravated assaults per square mile. Increases in violence associated with restaurants and bars were smaller but still statistically significant.

The relationship between assaults and the number of alcohol outlets weakened as the social organization of a community increased.

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2011-08/iu-sco081811.php