Alcohol Outlets and Homicide: Do Effects Vary by Race/Ethnicity?

• In Event: Understanding the Community Context of Substance Use

Abstract

This study examines whether alcohol outlets have disparate influences on homicide rates by race/ethnicity in the city of San Diego, CA. The role of alcohol for violence in criminological research is receiving increased attention, and the limited extant community level research shows that outlet density is associated with violence. There are also clear racial/ethnic differences in homicide victimization. This study assesses whether alcohol outlets disproportionately impact non-Latino white, non-Latino Black, and Latino homicide counts across communities. The objective is to ascertain if outlets, net of other community predictors, are similarly important for explaining group-specific homicides. Homicide data from the City of San Diego Homicide Unit, alcohol outlets data (based on city licensing records), and U.S. census data are combined, enabling examination of other potentially relevant factors (e.g., poverty, residential instability). Analyses entail negative binomial regression with corrections for spatial autocorrelation. Several types of community factors (e.g., poverty) are expected to influence homicides for all groups. However, we expect to find that alcohol outlets exert a greater influence on homicides for Blacks and Latinos relative to Whites. The role of alcohol for violence, especially as a factor potentially amenable to change, needs to be better understood.

Authors

• Amie L. Nielsen, University of Miami

• Feodor A. Gostjev, University of Miami

• Robert Nash Parker, University of California, Riverside

• Ramiro Martinez, Jr., Northeastern University