NCJ Number
125247
Date Published
1990
Length
80 pages
Annotation
Although evidence of an association between the use of intoxicants and aggressive behavior is pervasive, the precise causal mechanisms by which aggression is influenced by intoxicants have not been clearly identified.
Abstract
Research on the relationship of intoxication and aggression has often failed to note the nonviolent behavior of most substance users, the controlled use of substances, and evidence from other cultures of a weak or nonexistent relation between substance use and aggression. There is limited evidence that ingestion of intoxicants is a direct, pharmacological cause of aggression. The temporal order of substance use and aggression does not indicate a causal role for intoxicants. Research on the nexus between substance use and aggression consistently has found a complex relation, mediated by substance type and its psychoactive effects, user personality characteristics, the user's expected effects from the substance, situational factors attending substance use, and sociocultural factors that channel the arousal effects of substances into aggressive behaviors. Overall, contemporary explanations of the intoxication-aggression link provide limited explanatory power, given the multiplicity of factors influencing this link. 2 figures and 279 references