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The Availability of Alcohol near Campus Affects Crime Rates

Alcohol, with its ability to suppress inhibitions and provide a stimulant effect, can often encourage behaviors that may not otherwise happen. While this effect is often associated with crazy drinking games and wild party behavior, sometimes the result is far more sinister.

Recently, a group of researchers examined the effects of alcohol on campus crime. Scribner, Mason, Simonsen, Theall, Chotalia, Johnson, Schneider and De Jong looked at the ecological analysis of alcohol availability and violence across 32 colleges in the United States. The researchers sought to understand how the density of alcohol outlets might affect drinking levels and crimes reported on campus.

The researchers wanted to examine the associations between campus violence, student drinking levels and the physical availability of alcohol at off-campus outlets using a multi-site design.

To gather information, the researchers used an ecological analysis of on-campus violence at 32 colleges in the U.S. They looked at variables such as campus-related reports of rape, robbery, assault and burglary. The data was extracted from a U.S. Department of Education online database from 2002 to 2004.

The study used the Social Norms Marketing Research Project to obtain levels of student alcohol use and demographics from 2000 to 2004. To understand how alcohol is obtained at the colleges, the researchers contacted state alcohol-licensing authorities to determine the alcohol-outlet density within 3 miles of each campus.

The results of the study show that the on- and off-premise alcohol-outlet densities were shown to have an association with the level of campus rape-offense rate. However, the alcohol-outlet densities were not shown to have a connection with rates of assault or robbery.

Student drinking level was positively associated with campus rate and assault, but was not found to have an association with robbery rates on campus. The effects of alcohol-outlet density related to on-campus outlets was reduced when student drinking levels were taken into consideration, suggesting that on-premise density may be mediated by student drinking level.

A similar result was found when a separate analysis examined the mediational role of student drinking levels on off-premise outlet density.

The findings of the study suggest that there is an association at the campus level between sexual violence and the availability of alcohol to students. Further research must be conducted to understand how student drinking levels and alcohol availability might be contributing to the levels of sexual violence.