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Liquor Store Density Linked to Youth Homicides

Violent crime could be reduced significantly if policymakers at the local level limit the number of neighborhood liquor stores and ban the sale of single-serve containers of alcoholic beverages, according to separate studies led by University of California, Riverside researchers.

In the first of two groundbreaking studies published in Drug and Alcohol Review, researchers found a correlation between the density of alcohol outlets and violent crime rates among teens and young adults aged 13 to 24.

The second study examined crime rates and cooler space allocated to containers sold individually in San Bernardino, Calif. Researchers generally found higher rates of violent crime in neighborhoods around alcohol outlets that allot more than 10% of cooler space for single-serve containers.

“These results suggest that alcohol control can be an important tool in violence prevention,” Robert N. Parker, PhD, codirectos of the Presley Center for Crime and Justice Studies at the University of California, Riverside (UCR), said. “Policies designed to reduce outlet density can provide relief from violence in and around these neighborhood outlets. And banning or reducing the sales of single-serve, ready-to-consume containers of alcohol can have an additional impact on preventing violence.”

Researchers in the first study analyzed federal crime data for offenders aged 13 to 17 and 18 to 24 and census population and economic data to determine crime rates and the density of beer, wine and liquor stores in 91 of the largest American cities in 36 states.

Taking into account other factors known to contribute to youth homicide rates, such as poverty, drugs, availability of guns, and gangs, the researchers found that higher densities of liquor stores, providing easy access to alcoholic beverages, contributed significantly to higher youth homicide rates.

“Our findings suggest that reducing retail alcohol outlet density should significantly reduce the trends of youth homicide,” Parker said.

In the study of single-serve alcohol containers, researchers from UCR and the Institute for Public Strategies in San Bernardino collected data on alcohol outlet locations, violent crime reported to the San Bernardino Police Department and census data on varopis population, family, and age indicators. Workers from the San Bernardino County Department of Public Health’s Alcohol and Drug Abuse Prevention Program visited every liquor store in the city, and counted the number of coolers containing alcoholic beverages at each location and the amount of cooler space devoted to single-serve containers.

The researchers found that violent crime rates were significantly higher in neighborhoods that had both higher densities of liquor stores and retail outlets that devoted more cooler space for single-serve containers. The impact of sales of single-serve containers of alcoholic beverages alone was “modest,” they said.

“There is no reason that communities concerned about single-serve containers and their impact cannot take regulatory action on the basis of this limited study," the researchers wrote. "Community interests should dictate local policy, and the potential benefits of reduced violence outweigh any potential harm that the banning or limitation of such sales would create.”

— Source: University of California, Riverside