Do Changes to the Alcohol Retail Environment Reduce Interpersonal Violence?

Abstract

Purpose of review: To summarize recent research on the alcohol retail environment (sales, policies, availability) and interpersonal violence (assault, intimate partner violence, sexual assault), including methods utilized, theoretical frameworks employed, and associations by types of alcohol environmental exposure and violence.

Recent findings: Studies continue to demonstrate that reducing alcohol availability directly and indirectly lowers rates of interpersonal violence. Many of the 30 studies used state-of-the-art analytic methods and study designs. Few studies examined heterogeneity by minoritized identities or between alcohol environments and violence by other contextual characteristics. There was a dearth of theoretical frameworks and mechanisms explicated.

Summary: To increase impacts of alcohol control policies, specific, practical advice is needed about where, when, and for whom changes will reap the biggest effects. Methodological next steps include analyzing natural experiments, incorporating legal epidemiology, designing studies to examine heterogeneities, developing spatiotemporal simulations, and investigating how embodiment of historic injustices contributes to violence.

Supplementary information: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s40471-022-00315-7.