ARA

Alcohol & Violence

The Issue

Some research reports an association between certain drinking patterns and certain forms of violence. For example, some literature associates alcohol abuse with a higher incidence of domestic violence in individuals who are in jail or treatment. The evidence does not, however, support the conclusion that alcohol consumption causes violence.

Violence and alcohol abuse are complex social behaviours that share many associations. The literature shows that the strongest predictors of violence are: (i) family history of violence, (ii) whether an individual was a victim of violence, and (iii) anti-social personality disorder.

Alcohol abuse also is associated with these same variables. Thus, individuals prone to violence may also be prone to alcohol abuse. But violence does not cause alcohol abuse, and alcohol abuse does not cause violence.

Violence clearly occurs independent of alcohol consumption, even in countries whose populations largely abstain from drinking. For example, both domestic and other violence are prevalent in countries where alcohol consumption is discouraged or forbidden.

There is much evidence to suggest that cultural factors play a strong role in determining whether and how violence manifests in a country’s population. And individual factors also are an important predictor of violent behaviour.

Studies estimate that anywhere from 25% to more than 50% of the perpetrators of violent crime have consumed alcohol by their own admission. (1) However, where alcohol consumption is reported at the time an offence is committed, this may reflect only that these offenders (and, perhaps, their victims) frequently abuse alcohol, not that drinking actually caused the perpetrator’s violent act. Evidence of association does not prove causation.

Preventing alcohol abuse will not solve the problem of violence; rather, the problem of violence must be addressed directly, taking into account cultural and individual factors as was explained to the United Nations:

Many States continue to make the erroneous link between alcohol and violence. While alcohol does in many cases exacerbate violence, alcohol does not itself cause violence against women. The focus on alcohol or drugs, rather han on male patriarchal ideology, which has as its ultimate expression male violence against women, undermines the anti-violence movement.

Further, resources that should be allocated for support, training and systems development in respect to family violence against women, is instead allocated to combat alcohol and drug use and to provide services to alcoholics and drug abusers. While such services may be necessary, they should not detract from resource support for violence against women programming.

Radhika Coomaraswamy, Special Rapporteur to the Secretary General on Violence Against Women, Report to the UN Commission on Human Rights and the UN Economic and Social Council (2002).

Individuals and Their Relationships To Violence and Alcohol

Alcohol abuse and violence share several risk factors, such as parental models of alcohol abuse, aggression, domestic violence, familial or child abuse, antisocial personality disorder or other mental illness.

Even where these factors coincide, however, there are unique, complex factors that play a role in whether an individual will become an abuser of alcohol, a violent person, or both.

The relationship of drinking patterns to violence is complex and subject to many concomitant factors, e.g., personality and behavioural traits, environmental and situational factors, cultural norms, and biologic factors. Existing research uses several models to explain this multifaceted relationship.

One model offered to explain the relationship between alcohol abuse and violence suggests that alcohol abuse and violence may have common risk factors on an individual level, rather than a direct causal link. (2) (3)

This model offers perhaps the greatest opportunity not only to explain how alcohol consumption and violence co-exist, but also the greatest opportunity for harm reduction through targeted intervention measures.

A second model posits that violent behaviour itself leads to alcohol abuse. Violent individuals may seek out social groups or environments that promote excessive alcohol use, and may use alcohol abuse among other justifications or excuses for violent behaviour. (4) (5) Under this model, alcohol is not the cause of violent behaviour, but instead is associated with it.

Another model posits that alcohol consumption may lead to an increase of violent behaviour on a biologic (i.e., psychopharmacologic) level through its effect on behavioural inhibition, judgment, and cognitive functions such as interpersonal communication, awareness of consequences, and cue awareness and perception. (6) (7) Under this model, chronic alcohol abuse leading to intoxication also may contribute to episodes of aggression due to sleep deprivation, fatigue, withdrawal, impairment of neuropsychological functioning, or nutritional deficits. (8)

There is no mechanism, however, that has been established as the biologic route linking alcohol use directly to violent behaviour. The effects of alcohol also vary by individual.

Cultural Norms and Their Impact on Violence and Drinking Patterns

Context and cultural factors also cannot be ruled out in analyzing the relationship between drinking and violent behaviour. Generally, research supports the finding that in countries where drinking is integrated into everyday functions (e.g., in Mediterranean countries), the rates of alcohol-related violence are much lower than in countries where it is not.

By contrast, in Nordic and Northern European countries, where episodic drinking is more prevalent, and in the United States, where the role of alcohol in social life is met with ambivalence, the association between alcohol abuse and violence appears stronger. (9)

Importantly, where violence is condoned on a societal level, there are stronger associations between violence and drinking. (10) Rates of interpersonal violence vary inversely with the strength of social networks and other informal social controls.

Where communities are ineffective at controlling violence generally, incidents of violence in drinking situations increase. (11) Also, where alcohol abuse is more predominant across a culture or society, there is a higher likelihood that an association with violence will also be found. (12)

Group violence is especially associated with delinquent youth, for example gangs of football (soccer) “hooligans.” In these specific social settings, both alcohol abuse and violence are frequently glamorized or ritualized. Indeed, some studies indicate that crowd violence among English football supporters is an inevitable consequence of the social atmosphere of football matches and the dynamics of crowds of youths, and that the violent behaviour accompanying them is an end unto itself.

Expectancies of both violence and intoxication are played out in ritualistic crowd behaviour repeated before each match. Interestingly, a key finding of these studies was that the crowd leaders were relatively light drinkers and the heaviest drinkers became incapacitated and were largely incapable of violence. (13)

Policy Considerations

The scientific literature is clear that violent offenders must be treated and subject to enforceable laws. During the course of such treatment, alcohol abuse should be treated if it is concomitant.

Targeted interventions can address the problems of violence and alcohol abuse on both the individual level and the population level. Perhaps even more important, however, are measures to change cultural norms relating to violence.

Public education and social norms programs have proven effective in addressing alcohol abuse and underage drinking. They may also hold some promise in addressing community attitudes about violence, when implemented in connection with strict law enforcement.

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