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May 5, 2008Alcohol-outlet density and violence are clearly linked over time |
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From EurekAlert! - Breaking News: All three types of outlets examined -- hotel pubs, bars and packaged-liquor outlets --had positive relationships with assault rates. Hotel pubs and bars were the biggest drivers of violence in inner-city areas, while packaged-liquor outlets were more important in suburban areas. While previous studies have confirmed a relationship between alcohol-outlet density and violence, few have looked at what happens within a suburb as outlet density changes. finding that increasing the density of all kinds of alcohol outlets in a suburb leads to increasing rates of violence in that suburb. Results will be published in the June issue of Alcoholism: Clinical & Experimental Research and are currently available at OnlineEarly. "The literature shows that suburbs with more alcohol outlets experience more violence, but only a handful of papers have explored what happens within a suburb as outlet density changes," explained Michael Livingston, a research fellow at the Turning Point Alcohol and Drug Centre and the study's sole author. "The study found that, across Melbourne, the three types of outlets examined -- hotel pubs, bars, and packaged liquor outlets -- all had positive relationships to assault rates," said Livingston. Livingston explained that, for inner-city areas, each additional hotel pub or on-premise license was related to two extra night-time assaults per year -- the strongest link found in the study. "The strong longitudinal relationship between outlet density and violence greatly strengthens the evidence base that density of alcohol outlets in a suburb is a driver of violence, making liquor licensing and planning regulations legitimate areas for public-health interventions," said Livingston.
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