Presley Center and Department of Sociology, University of California, Riverside, CA 92521, USA.
Drug Alcohol Rev. 2011 Sep;30(5):496-504. doi: 10.1111/j.1465-3362.2011.00318.x.
This paper examines the role that sales of single serve alcoholic beverages plays in violent crime in surrounding areas. Increasingly a target of regulatory measures, this is the first study to systematically assess the impact of single serve containers on neighbourhood violence.
The relative proportion of shelf space in each liquor establishment in San Bernardino, CA devoted to single serve alcohol containers was surveyed. Assuming that this is a rough indicator of the amount of sales derived from single serve containers, we use this indicator as a measure of the impact of specific retail practice on violence around the outlet.
Results show that the average proportion of shelf space devoted to single serve containers in the unit of analysis, the US Census Bureau block group, was positively related to violent crime, net of overall retail availability of alcohol and relevant social and economic indicators often used to predict violent crime rates in such units.
These findings suggest that if the city were to make the voluntary ban on single serve container sales mandatory, violence in the surrounding areas would decline, all other things being equal. This study provides a much more grounded and specific justification for enacting such policy changes and once again shows the utility of alcohol policy for the reduction of crime and violence.
本文探讨了单份酒精饮料销售在周边地区暴力犯罪中所扮演的角色。作为日益受到监管措施关注的对象，这是第一项系统评估单份容器对邻里暴力影响的研究。
我们对加利福尼亚州圣贝纳迪诺的每家酒类专卖店中单份酒精容器的货架空间比例进行了调查。假设这是单份容器销售额的一个大致指标，我们将此指标用作衡量特定零售行为对销售点周边暴力行为影响的指标。
结果表明，在分析单位（美国人口普查局街区组）中，平均用于单份容器的货架空间比例与暴力犯罪呈正相关，控制了酒精整体零售供应以及通常用于预测此类单位暴力犯罪率的相关社会经济指标。
这些发现表明，如果该市强制实施禁止单份容器销售的规定，在其他条件相同的情况下，周边地区的暴力犯罪率将会下降。本研究为实施此类政策变化提供了更合理和具体的理由，再次证明了酒精政策在减少犯罪和暴力方面的作用。
