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Article Excerpt
Alcohol and violence
Identifying the role of alcohol vis-a-vis violence has been a long-standing question within alcohol research (for an overview of different research see Graham et al. 1998). Researchers generally agree that aggressive behavior and alcohol use are related (Graham & West 2001); the nature of this relationship, however, remains in question (White & Hansell 1993; Room & Rossow 2001; Rossow, Pape & Wichstrom 1999).
A substantial body of research into the link between alcohol consumption and violence derives from the observation of large cultural variations in drunken comportment (Mac Andrew & Edgerton 1969). This line of research addresses the varying explanatory values which people attribute to drunkenness with regard to, among other things, aggressive action and sexual activity (e.g., Bullock in press; Critchlow 1985; Graham, Wells & West 1997; Paglia & Room 1998; Tryggvesson 2004; Tryggvesson & Bullock 2004). Other research compares the link between alcohol consumption and violence at the population level, showing that this link is stronger in the Nordic countries than in southern European countries (Lenke 1990; Norstrom 1998; Rossow 2001). A feared effect of the large increase in alcohol consumption in Sweden over the last decade, and the increase in the number of licensed restaurants, is that there will be an increase in violent crime.
A problem when investigating changes in the rates of violent crime is that the tendency for victims to report violent crime varies according to their social desirability and mood at the time (Kuhlhorn 2004, 47). The kind of violence that is least sensitive to fluctuations in reporting is "street violence" and assault cases where the victim is unknown to the perpetrator. In Sweden, these cases constitute a quarter of all assault cases reported to the police (Kuhlhorn 2004,51). Violence in public places by unknown perpetrators has, however, been fairly stable over the last decade, according to investigations of victims (SCB 2004; Hall 2004, 78).
On the other hand, according to the same investigations, feelings of insecurity have risen significantly over the last decade (Statistiska Centralbryan [Statistics Sweden] SCB 2004, 55). More than a quarter of the older population never goes out alone after dark, or always and/or usually avoid places in their own neighborhood during the hours of darkness. Among the young, only a minority allow feelings of insecurity to deter them from going out alone after dark in their own neighborhood (3.3% of women and 0.8% of men aged 16-24; SCB 2004). However, it is decidedly more common among young women than among young men to always or usually avoid certain places in their own neighborhood after dark (30.5% of the women aged 16-24 compared to 5.2% of the men). Even though young women apparently seldom let feelings of insecurity deter them from entering public places such as the street, they describe their freedom of movement with particular limitations.
The picture is different when it comes to experiences of violent or threatening situations. Men constitute over 75% of those exposed to violence or intimidation from an unknown perpetrator in public places, with women slightly less than 25%, but nearly half among those aged 16-24. The most common reported violent situations for women take place indoors in someone's home. Three times as many women as men are subject to this kind of violent act, which is likely to be with people known to them (SCB 2004, 31). When it comes to violence, men and women apparently live in different worlds (Graham & Wells 2001).
In addition to demonstrating different experiences of violence, the above statistical information derived from investigations of victims shows that young women and men face two different kinds of potential conflict. One facet of being a young woman is fear of what might happen to them when outside under cover of darkness--but not being stopped from going out; one facet of being a young man is to have direct experience of violence--but not being afraid of it or at least not letting it show. Behind the statistical figures, it is therefore possible to imagine the dilemmas experienced by young women and men about how they are expected to be, feel, think, and act in the street and other public places.
The main purpose of this article is to report how 18-year-old women and men in focus group discussions reason about alcohol, street violence, and fear of assault by a stranger. How do they consider the potential threat of what might happen when they are out at night? How do they motivate their own actions and their fear or lack of fear? Do they attribute significance to alcohol in the context, and if so, what kind of significance? What similarities and differences are there between the value systems in which young women and young men place their actions?
Accounting for fear, violence and other actions
A central function of human speech is the ability to account for one's actions so as to change, mitigate or modify other's perceptions and assessments. To be accountable to others arises from the condition that persons can be held responsible or answerable for their actions (Buttny 1993, Schlenker, Pontari, Christopher 2001; Scott & Lyman 1968). Personal accounts can be identified in ordinary language by the familiar terms: excuses, apologies, justifications, defences, explanations, narratives, and the like. An account may be heard as an expression of a kind of reason for action, an explanation for "why" or "how" an action was committed, often marked by "because statements" (Buttny 1993, 17).
Accounts are not representations of the interviewees' actions or actual experience, but a presentation of their perceptions and preferred interpretations of the actions (Buttny 1993; Jarvinen 2001). What one presents as a personal account, excuse or explanation is dependent upon cultural conceptions of behavior that are acceptable from a moral point of view. Usually, therefore, behaviors that could be viewed by others with disapproval are accounted for through a small repertoire of probable and generally acceptable excuses (Lamb & Lalljee 1992, 26).
In the group discussions, views, and arguments emerge through the process of dialogue, in which the young people explain themselves, motivate, and justify their actions or opinions. One can expect the system of values to which alcohol and violence, and the fear of violence, belong to become apparent in these young people's group discussions from the accounts they give of their own and others' feelings and behavior, and the context in which these occur.
Method and material
Focus groups
A focus group provides an opportunity for the production of data with particular significance and meaning. Participants can play with and test ideas, and together clarify thoughts that may have been only vague and ambivalent to start with. The emphasis is on cultural rather than individual representations, with culture taken here to mean the way in which people create meaning within their group or society. It is therefore an advantage if a focus group is recruited from a natural network--and is fairly homogenous in composition--defined as having a mutual project and a common history--in effect a collective memory (Bauer & Gaskell 1999, 175).
Drinking is generally a collective experience, especially among the young. It is therefore apt in this context to use this collective experience as represented in pictures,...
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