Alcohol and Malt Liquor Availability and Promotion and Homicide in Inner Cities

Abstract

We investigated the role of the alcohol environment in explaining disparities in homicide rates among minorities in 10 cities in the United States using 2003 data from the Malt Liquor and Homicide study. We hypothesized that (a) higher concentrations of African Americans would be associated with higher homicide rates, as well as higher alcohol and malt liquor availability and promotion, and (b) the relationship between neighborhood racial/ethnic concentration and homicide would be attenuated by the greater alcohol and malt liquor availability and promotion in African American neighborhoods. Hypotheses were tested using separate Poisson, linear, and logistic regression models that corrected for spatial autocorrelation. Census block groups served as the unit of analysis (n = 450). We found that higher concentrations of African Americans were associated with higher homicide rates as well as greater alcohol availability, especially malt liquor availability. The promotion of malt liquor on storefronts was also significantly greater in African American than in other neighborhoods. However, none of the measures representing alcohol or malt liquor availability and promotion variables changed the effect of neighborhood racial/ethnic concentration on homicide. Limitations and implications of our findings are discussed.

Neighborhood Disadvantage, High Alcohol Content Beverage Consumption, Drinking Norms, and Drinking Consequences: A Mediation Analysis

“…10,32,38 Neighborhood racial/ethnic composition was represented by two variables: proportion Black/African American (M09.9, SD019.4) and proportion Hispanic/Latino (M09.9, SD017.1). Urbanicity was the proportion of residents in an urbanized area or urban cluster (M074.2, SD037.7).…”

“…As previously mentioned, high-alcohol-content beverages such as malt liquor are highly available and heavily promoted in African American neighborhoods. 10,32 Additionally, men are more likely to be consumers of highalcohol-content beverages such as malt liquor than women. 35,58 We used multiple group analysis and difference tests to evaluate whether allowing paths to vary significantly improved the fit over models where paths were constrained to be equal across groups.…”

“…This is especially true in disadvantaged neighborhoods where liquor stores are overconcentrated, [6][7][8] and alcohol is heavily promoted by commercial interests. [9][10][11] Various theories have been used to explain how living in a disadvantaged neighborhood affects drinking behavior. For example, social ecological theory 12 suggests that the high concentration of liquor stores increases the physical availability of alcohol, and the heavy promotion of alcohol makes heavy drinking more socially acceptable and encourages consumption in disadvantaged neighborhoods.…”

“…31 Malt liquor (e.g., Colt 45) and lowend fortified wines (e.g., Thunderbird) are inexpensive, highly available, and widely promoted in disadvantaged and African American neighborhoods. 10,11,32 In some disadvantaged African American neighborhoods, it is not uncommon to see more advertisements for malt liquor than food on the storefronts of food stores. 32 Distilled spirits are promoted in print media 33 ; however, cognac and brandy have increasingly been marketed in outdoor advertising in African American and lowincome neighborhoods.…”

“…Given the high availability and targeted marketing of highalcohol-content beverages to African American consumers, we also examined whether effects varied by race/ethnicity and took into account neighborhood racial/ethnic composition. 10,11,32 …”