Boston University researchers have found that stricter alcohol policies reduce the likelihood of alcohol consumption among homicide victims.
The research, which was published in a study on Sept. 21, analyzes the relationship between alcohol policies currently in place and the presence of alcohol among 27,000 homicide victims in 17 states from 2003 to 2012, according to a press release from the BU Medical Center.
Researchers characterized state alcohol policies — which include alcohol taxes and licenses — using an aggregate “Alcohol Policy Scale,” which was based on 29 individual policies and measured their success. The study found a positive correlation between alcohol use and homicide victimization due to altered behaviors from drinking.
“Alcohol use may be related to homicide victimization because … alcohol use may affect behaviors that put a person at increased risk for homicide victimization, or both,” the study stated.
BU School of Public Health professor Ziming Xuan, one of the researchers involved in the study, said that the researchers produced some of the first findings establishing a link between alcohol policies and victims of homicide.
“This is one of the first few studies that actually examines that if the alcohol policies are strong, then people are less likely to have alcohol when they are victims in homicide cases,” Xuan said.
Xuan also said these findings can help shape alcohol policy and regulations.
“It’s a new layer of evidence … in addition to many that have been proposed, where stronger alcohol policy has been used to offset drinking,” Xuan said.
David Rosenbloom, a SPH professor, said that the study shows a clear association between stricter policies regarding alcohol availability and price and lower levels of violence.
“The better policies that a state has, the more likely it is that alcohol-related violence will be reduced,” Rosenbloom said. “The study validates what has been true and well-known for a very long time — that high levels of alcohol use are associated with violence.”
Rosenbloom added that the study’s lead author Timothy Naimi and his colleagues have repeatedly demonstrated through their research the need for alcohol control policies to be multifaceted in nature.
“The more elements there are in an alcohol policy, the more likely it is to have favorable public health outcomes,” Rosenbloom said.
However, the study was not without its limitations, one BU professor noted.
The “Alcohol Policy Scale” — the index that the study’s researchers used to measure the effectiveness of a state’s policies — bunched together distinctive policies, criminal justice professor Shea Cronin said.
“One of the things that came out of this paper that was unclear to me was the extent to which certain kinds of alcohol regulations would affect homicides,” Cronin said. “They don’t disaggregate certain types of alcohol restrictions that may be more effective than others.”
Cronin noted that it would be interesting to know which types of alcohol control policies have the greatest impact on homicide rates.
“If lower [blood alcohol content] laws for drunk driving affect homicides, or if a higher tax on alcohol affects homicides, it would be good to know those particular policy levers that matter or don’t matter,” he said.
Cronin said while the study contains a measure for the level of intoxication of a homicide victim, it does not, as many readers may assume, account for the blood alcohol content of the offender.
He said that when readers hear the term “alcohol-involved homicide,” they are likely to interpret it as the offender being intoxicated.
“This study doesn’t necessarily show that connection,” Cronin said. “What it does just show is that when states have stronger alcohol control policies, they’ll have fewer alcohol-involved victimizations.”
Noor Adatia contributed to the reporting of this article.
Shaun was the Editor-in-Chief for the Spring 2019 semester. Before that, he was the Multimedia Editor, the Layout Editor and a News writer. He also sat on the Board of Directors. Follow him on Twitter @shaun_robs.
