Alcohol and Crime: Data From 2002 to 2008

• NCJ Number: 231685
• Author(s): Michael R. Rand; William J. Sabol; Michael Sinclair; Howard Snyder
• Date Published: September 2010
• Length: 44 pages
• Agencies: BJS
• Publication Type: Statistics

Annotation

Data results are presented from four data sources examining the involvement of alcohol and violent crime from different perspectives and different sets of criminal behaviors for the time period of 2002 to 2008.

Abstract

Results of the data analyses indicate that (1) alcohol was a factor in between 19 percent and 37 percent of violent crimes from 1997 to 2008; (2) the proportion of violence involving alcohol as well as the rate of alcohol-related violence has declined over the past decade; (3) alcohol-involved violent incidents differed from other violent incidents in the age group of offenders and victims, injuries sustained, and times and places of the incidents; (4) alcohol-related crime was less likely to include juveniles as victims and offenders; (5) a large proportion of alcohol-related violence occurred in and around residences; (6) violence involving alcohol was also more likely to happen in bars than other types of violence; and (7) alcohol-related violence was more likely to involve intimates than other types of violence; however, based on the National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS), alcohol-related incidents involved strangers more often than intimates, while intimates were the most prevalent type of victim in the National Incident-Based Reporting System (NIBRS). Analyses were conducted from four data sources: the NIBRS, NCVS, the Survey of Inmates in State and Federal Correctional Facilities (SISFCF), and the Survey of Inmates in Local Jails (SILJ) to examine alcohol and violent crime from different perspectives and different sets of criminal behaviors. The data gathered covered the time period of 2002 to 2008. Tables and appendixes