Social Disorganization, Alcohol, and Drug Markets and Violence*

Abstract

The United States remains one of the most violent countries in the developed world. We believe that at least three separate sets of factors have contributed to these high rates: (1) social disorganization and related community structural factors, (2) over-densities in the distribution of alcohol outlets, and (3) illegal drug markets. Data were collected for the city of Sacramento, CA, for the years 1997 through 2001 and geocoded to 304 Census block groups. The outcome measure for the study was numbers of Emergency Medical System (EMS, ambulance, and fire) calls for service related to assault injuries. Data on population and housing characteristics related to social disorganization were obtained from the US Census. California Alcohol Beverage Control data provided the locations of active alcohol outlets in the city separated into bars and taverns and off-premise establishments. Sacramento Police Department incident reports related to drug sales and transport were used to indicate areas of the city where drug market activities were most prevalent. Bayesian disease models were used to assess statistical relationships between EMS assault injuries and these independent measures. The index of drug market activity and numbers of alcohol outlets were positively related to the number of assault injuries. Areas with lesser White and greater African-American populations had more assaults. Lower education, greater amounts of vacant housing, and more unemployment were also related to greater levels of violence. However, contrary to the expectations, more owner-occupied housing and greater household incomes were positively related to the levels of assaults, and greater numbers of households below the poverty line were related to lower levels of assaults. A substantive effect was observed for the interaction of drug arrests and poverty, indicating lower levels of violence in poor areas with high degrees of drug activity (actually increasing the size of the anomalous effect noted in the previous paragraph). Substantive positive interactions were observed with respect to sizes of minority populations, African-Americans, and Hispanics. Drug market activities and alcohol outlets have separable and substantive effects upon observed rates of violence. These environmental conditions serve as catalysts for violence among at-risk populations.