More Liquor Stores Equal More Violence in an Area

A new investigation has determined that areas which feature more bars and liquor stores than the average experiences a lot more violence as well. The work was conducted using statistical data collected from the US state of Cincinnati, which covered crime information and the number of liquor licenses available for a number of areas, including convenience stores and carry-out sites. A clear association was found to exist between these numbers and the frequency of assaults and other crimes. The researcher showed that even bars and restaurants were associated with this trend, LiveScience reports.

The model revealed that one extra liquor store per square mile led to at least 2.3 more assaults, as well as to 0.6 more aggravated assaults in the same area. The research couldn't establish for sure whether the increased number of irresponsible behaviors was associated with alcohol itself. The team behind the investigation mentions that other risk factors for those particular areas were accounted for, including the level of poverty, and the age and race of the inhabitants. Still, after the control factors were taken into account, the strong correlation between the number of liquor stores and assaults still held strong.

“We did our best to control for the social and demographic characteristics that help explain patterns of violence,” Indiana University Department of Criminal Justice research professor William Pridemore says. The work was presented recently in San Diego, at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). One possible explanation for why bars and restaurants do not cause suck a significant rise in assaults on their own may be the higher levels of control they exert on clients. “In restaurants and bars, there's a little more structured control. If you're binging, they might cut you off,” says IU professor of geography Tony Grubesic, a coauthor on the study.

One possible solution to these issues is adjusting the times at which bars and alcohol stores close down. “If there is some kind of propensity for all of the bars to close at 2 am, you might want to stagger those release times so not everybody's being released onto the street at the same time after a night of drinking,” Grubesic argues. Additionally, city authorities could impose limits on the density of liquor stores in any given area, so as to avoid clumping.