Alcohol Users and Non-Users: A Discriminant Analysis Between Two Subgroups of Batterers

Abstract

The purpose of this research was to investigate differences between batterers who abused alcohol and those who did not use any alcohol at all during four battering incidents. The study examined violence attributes, the victim's use of alcohol, and demographic characteristics of the two subgroups of batterers. Discriminant analysis of these variables showed significant differences between the alcohol abusers and the non-users. The victim's use of alcohol was the highest contributor to the discriminant function, followed by age of the batterer, level of injury inflicted on the victim, batterer's socioeconomic status, the batterer's violence toward the children, and the total amount of violence sustained by the victim. Additionalfindings were that only 16 percent (N=58) of the batterers used alcohol excessively during all four battering incidents, and 19 percent (N=73) did not use any alcohol at all. The remaining 65 percent (N=259) showed an inconsistent pattern of alcohol abuse, no use, or some use.