NCJ Number
140502
Journal
Criminal Justice Review Volume: 17 Issue: 2 Dated: (Autumn 1992) Pages: 268-279
Date Published
1992
Length
12 pages
Annotation
This study explores the relationship between alcohol availability in each State to arrest rates for alcohol-related offenses including drunk driving, public drunkenness, disorderly conduct, vagrancy, and liquor law violations. Alcohol availability was measured through per capita number of on-premises alcohol outlets, per capita number of off-premises outlets, and per capita number of outlets that provide alcohol for both on-premises and off-premises consumption.
Abstract
The study controlled for a number of socioeconomic variables: the percentage of persons living below the poverty level in each State, the percentage of residents aged between 15 and 24, the proportions of Hispanics and blacks in the State's population, and the proportion of residents living in metropolitan areas. Two additional measures of alcohol availability -- legal drinking age and the percentage of the population living in alcohol-prohibited areas -- were included in the analysis. The researchers employed correlational analyses at both the zero-order and multivariate levels; regression analysis based on ordinary level squares was the principal statistical technique used. The findings showed that alcohol availability has widely varied effects for different alcohol-related crimes. There was a negative relationship between per capita number of on-premises outlets and rates of arrest for drinking under the influence and drunkenness. There was a nonsignificant but positive correlation between the percentage of a State's population residing in dry areas and arrest rates for DUI and public drunkenness. Not surprisingly, the rate of arrests for liquor law violations was associated with the percentage of the population between the ages of 15 and 24 and the State's legal drinking age. Variables traditionally used in the etiology of serious crime, including poverty, race, and metropolitan population, were not good predictors of alcohol-related offenses. 2 tables, 5 notes, and 28 references