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Alcohol consumption and homicides in Canada, 1950-1999.

Article Excerpt
In 1998 more than 400 persons died from homicide in Canada. A recent Canadian study (Pernanen et al., 2002) found that more than half of those federal inmates convicted for homicides had been intoxicated by alcohol at the time of the crime, and a similar figure was reported for other violent crimes. These findings ale in line with those of several previous studies from the U.S. (see Greenfeld, 1998; Room and Rossow, 2001; Pernanen et al., 2002, for reviews), and it is clear that alcohol is a common ingredient in violent events.

The role of alcohol in violent incidents and crimes has been subject to a large number of empirical studies addressing various aspects of violence and employing various perspectives and methods (see, for example, Lenke, 1990; Pernanen, 1991; Gustafsson, 1995; Parker, 1995; Graham et al., 1998; Parker and Auerhahn, 1998; Room and Rossow, 2001, for reviews). It is well documented from a large variety of studies that perpetrators of violent incidents and crimes are quite often intoxicated or under the influence of alcohol at the time of the violent incident. This is also often the case with the victims of violence, and probably bystanders or others as well.

Several theories are used to explain why we observe an association between alcohol consumption and violent behavior (see Parker and Auerhahn, 1998, and Pernanen et al., 2002, for brief reviews). Some theories have suggested a non-causal relationship between drinking and violence in the sense that alcohol is used to avoid responsibility and blame for planned behavior, or that drinking and violence occur in "time out" situations when deviant behavior is socially acceptable (Pernanen et al., 2002). Yet there are also several theories suggesting that alcohol intoxication may play a significant causal role in violent behavior--for example, through its impact on cognitive processes and social interaction, whereby, for example, clumsy or rude behavior and misunderstandings may escalate into aggression and violence (Parker and Auerhahn, 1998; Pernanen et al., 2002).

Although it is not clear to what extent alcohol consumption may cause violent incidents, a growing body of research has demonstrated that an increase in the overall amount of drinking in a society tends to be accompanied by a significant increase in violent crimes. This was shown by, for example, Skog and Bjork (1988), who found that an increase in total alcohol sales was followed by a significant increase in violent crime rates. Similar results were reported by Lenke (1990), who also demonstrated that the magnitude of the association between alcohol sales and violent crimes differed across drinking cultures (i.e., Sweden and France). Analyses of alcohol sales and homicide rates in 14 European countries also demonstrated that homicide rates tended to increase when alcohol sales increased, and more so in the northern European countries (where intoxication is a more prominent feature of the drinking pattern) than in southern European countries (Rossow, 2001). In other words, it has been found that each liter of alcohol is accompanied by more violence in northern Europe compared with southern Europe. Pridemore (2002) also found a significant association between alcohol consumption and homicide rates across Russian regions.

Another issue concerning a possible differential impact of alcohol on violence relates to different impacts on male and female victims of violent behavior. The offenders of (registered) criminal violent behavior are most often men--for example, six out of seven Canadian arrestees for violent crimes were men (Pernanen et al., 2002)--and also the victims of violent behavior are more often men. Victims of violent acts have often been drinking before the violent event, and it has been suggested that the victim-to-be may trigger a violent situation due to his own intoxication. A number of studies indicate that the victim's drinking may play a role in violent incidents...

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