Alcohol and Violence

This is careful scholarship, a great book, and a fundamental contribution to the literature on alcohol and violence. Through wide ranging consideration of theory, sophisticated understanding of measurement and method, and recognition of the practical importance of harm reduction, Parker and McCaffree address a complex relationship often left to the periphery of criminology and sociology. The series of studies presented by the authors coalesces nicely to provide the reader with evidence about the alcohol-violence relationship and about the effects on violence of alcohol policy that cannot be ignored. From a school-based mental health intervention among adolescents, to raising the minimum drinking age, to an outright ban on alcohol in one town, the authors reveal the power of policy interventions to reduce alcohol-related aggression, violence, and other negative outcomes. -- William Alex Pridemore, Indiana University
In this comprehensive and theoretically grounded book, Parker and McCaffree make a compelling case for the need to ‘bring booze back in’ to the study of crime and violence. Using an impressive range of data sources and a variety of analyses, the authors make a very strong case for their central thesis that alcohol is causally related to violence. Alcohol-related control policies of various types are also shown to help reduce violence, offering potential avenues for relatively 'easy' interventions in the form of environmental changes to improve crime outcomes. Overall, in this book Parker and McCaffree make a most important contribution to criminology and surely will help to (re)direct scholars’ attention to the pivotal, yet largely ignored, role that alcohol plays for many forms of criminal violence. -- Amie L. Nielsen, University of Miami
Alcohol and Violence is a welcome contribution to the limited literature on this subject. Community members and program administrators are well aware that neighborhoods impacted by violence often have easy access to alcohol—yet are often challenged to make this case when trying to regulate and restrict the sale of alcohol in their communities. This work demonstrates the promise that policy and regulatory efforts hold for reducing violence in neighborhoods. I recommend it for all researchers, evaluators, and program staff working on this issue. -- Linda M. Bosma, Bosma Consulting, LLC
Sociologist Parker (Univ. of California, Riverside) and PhD student McCaffree join with coauthors on many chapters in this research monograph to explore the harm caused by, and environmental prevention strategies for, alcohol—the 'most important' drug for involvement with assault and homicide. Part 1 examines the nature of the relationship between alcohol and violent victimization; violence among Mexican American youth; sexually explicit alcohol advertising aimed at Latinos; adolescent mental health; and cross-national contexts. Part 2 examines prevention through the framework of environmental prevention, which means restricting access to alcohol (changing people's attitudes about alcohol is secondary, at best). With mixed success, the authors disavow a 'neo-Prohibitionist' label while reporting on the effects of raising the drinking age, banning alcohol in Barrow, Alaska, decreasing alcohol outlet density, and responsible beverage service (bartenders monitoring customer consumption). Chapters generally resemble journal article format, with contemporary literature reviews setting up model specification and analysis of 1990s data in detailed tables, followed by discussion. Contextualization of issues is good, literature reviews are impressive, and discussion is helpful (even for those having different viewpoints). Conclusions highlight the problems of alcohol while being nuanced, qualified, and sometimes surprisingly narrow. Summing Up: Recommended. * CHOICE *