Alcohol Accessibility and Family Violence-related Ambulance Attendances
- 1 July 2022
- journal article
- research article
- Published by SAGE Publications in Journal of Interpersonal Violence
- Vol. 37 (13-14), NP10661-NP10682
- https://doi.org/10.1177/0886260520986262
Abstract
There is substantial evidence supporting the association between alcohol license density and violent crime. However, the impact of different types of alcohol licenses on intimate partner and family violence is sparse. We explored the associations between access to alcohol outlets, and family and intimate partner violence using paramedic clinical records, given this service is often the first to respond to acute crises. Coded ambulance attendance data from 694 postcodes in Victoria, Australia, from July 1, 2016 to June 30, 2018 where alcohol or another drug, mental health or self-harm associated with family or intimate partner violence was indicated were examined. A hybrid model of spatial autoregressive and negative binomial zero-inflated Poisson-based count regression models was used to examine associations with alcohol outlet density and socioeconomic factors. We found that access to a liquor license outlet was significantly associated with family violence-related attendances across all types of outlets, including on-premise (late night) licenses (beta = 1.73, SE: 0.18), restaurant licenses (beta = 0.83, SE: 0.28), and packaged liquor licenses (beta = 0.62, SE: 0.06). Our results demonstrate a significant relationship between alcohol-related harms in the context of family violence and provides evidence of the relationship between alcohol-related family violence in both victims and perpetrators. The findings of this study highlight the need for public health interventions such as licensing policy and town planning changes to reduce these harms by restricting alcohol availability.This publication has 26 references indexed in Scilit:
- Longitudinal change in women’s sexual victimization experiences as a function of alcohol consumption and sexual victimization history: A latent transition analysis.Psychology of Violence, 2016
- “Let’s Get Drunk and Have Sex”Journal of Interpersonal Violence, 2013
- Victimization and Perpetration of Intimate Partner Violence and Substance Use Disorders in a Nationally Representative SampleJournal of Nervous & Mental Disease, 2012
- A longitudinal analysis of alcohol outlet density and domestic violenceAddiction, 2011
- The ecology of domestic violence: the role of alcohol outlet densityGeospatial Health, 2010
- Alcohol May Not Cause Partner Violence But It Seems to Make It Worse: A Cross National Comparison of the Relationship Between Alcohol and Severity of Partner ViolenceJournal of Interpersonal Violence, 2010
- Intoxication Is Not Always Visible: An Unrecognized Prevention ChallengeAlcohol: Clinical and Experimental Research, 2009
- Analysis of Road Crash Frequency with Spatial ModelsTransportation Research Record: Journal of the Transportation Research Board, 2008
- Drinking Level, Neighborhood Social Disorder, and Mutual Intimate Partner ViolenceAlcohol: Clinical and Experimental Research, 2007
- Spatial dynamics of alcohol availability, neighborhood structure and violent crime.Journal of Studies on Alcohol, 2001