Alcohol Outlet Density and Intimate Partner Violence in a Nonmetropolitan College Town: Accounting for Neighborhood Characteristics and Alcohol Outlet Types.

Abstract

There is a growing evidence of an ecological association between alcohol outlet density and intimate partner violence. It is reasonable to assume, however, that not all types of alcohol outlets contribute equally to criminal behavior, and to date, most ecological studies have been of large urban cities. Using Bloomington, Indiana, block groups as units of analysis and controlling for several structural characteristics associated with violence rates, I estimated spatially lagged regression models to determine if the variation in alcohol outlet density, including total outlets and disaggregating by on- and off-premise outlets, is related to intimate partner violence density. Results suggested that total alcohol outlet density and off-premise alcohol outlet density were significantly associated with intimate partner violence density. On-premise alcohol outlet density was not significantly associated with intimate partner violence density. These results not only extend the geographic scope of this relationship beyond large metropolitan areas but also have important policy implications.