Vodka and Violence: Alcohol Consumption and Homicide Rates in Russia

Pridemore, William Alex

doi:10.2105/ajph.92.12.1921

Cited by 158 publications

(168 citation statements)

References 53 publications

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“…All of these studies report statistically signifi cant relationships between alcohol and homicide. The same fi nding was obtained by Pridemore (2002) on the basis of ecological data comprising 78 Russian regions. With regard to beverage-specifi c analyses, a time-series analysis by Stickley and Razvodovsky (2011) revealed that vodka (but not beer or wine) was signifi cantly related to homicide.…”

Section: Previous Researchsupporting

confidence: 68%

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Alcohol and Homicide in Russia and the United States: A Comparative Analysis

Landberg

Norström²

2011

J. Stud. Alcohol Drugs

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ABSTRACT. Objective: The object of this study was to perform a comparative analysis of the aggregate relationship between alcohol and homicide in Russia and in the United States. The comparison was based on the magnitude of the alcohol effect, the alcohol attributable fraction (AAF), and the degree to which total consumption could account for trends in homicide. Method: We analyzed total and sex-specifi c homicide rates for the age groups 15-64 years, 15-34 years, and 35-64 years. The study period was 1959-1998 for Russia and 1950 for the United States. For the United States, alcohol consumption was gauged by sales of alcohol; for Russia, estimated unrecorded consumption was included as well. The data were analyzed through autoregressive integrated moving average (ARIMA) modeling. Results: The results show that, for Russia as well as for the United States, a 1-L increase in consumption was associated with an increase in homicides of about 10%, although the absolute effect was markedly larger in Russia because of differences in homicide rates. The AAF estimates suggested that 73% and 57% of the homicides would be attributable to alcohol in Russia and in the United States, respectively. Most of the temporal variation in the Russian homicide rate could be accounted for by the trend in drinking, whereas the U.S. trend in total alcohol consumption had a more limited ability to predict the trend in homicides. Conclusions: We conclude that the role of alcohol in homicide seems to be larger in Russia than in the United States. (J. Stud. Alcohol Drugs, 72, 723-730, 2011)

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Section: Previous Researchsupporting

confidence: 68%

“…First, the reported proportion of offenders who had been drinking before the crime is higher for Russia than for the United States. For Russia, the estimates are in the 70%-80% range (Chervyakov et al, 2002;Pridemore, 2002Pridemore, , 2006. The corresponding estimates for the United States, however, seem to be markedly lower.…”

mentioning

confidence: 85%

Alcohol and Homicide in Russia and the United States: A Comparative Analysis

Landberg

Norström²

2011

J. Stud. Alcohol Drugs

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“…This suggestion is supported by the composition of causes comprising the class ''Symptoms, signs and abnormal clinical and laboratory findings not elsewhere classified'' of ICD-10, such as ''Instantaneous death'' (R960) ''Unattended death'' (R98), ''Other sudden death, cause unknown'' (R96) and ''Other ill-defined and unspecified causes of mortality'' (R99). Taking into account the realities of Russia with its high rate of violent crime Gavrilova et al 2005;Pridemore 2002) and growing income inequality (Bobak et al 1998), these causes of death may be indicative of deaths due to injuries, particularly at young adult age groups, in which the level of mortality is determined by external causes.…”

Section: What Is Concealed Behind the Unspecified Causes Of Death?mentioning

confidence: 99%

Russian Mortality Crisis and the Quality of Vital Statistics

Gavrilova

Semyonova

Dubrovina³

et al. 2008

Popul Res Policy Rev

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Mortality from ill-defined conditions in Russia has the fastest rate of increase compared to all other major causes of death. High proportion of deaths in this category is indicative for low quality of mortality statistics. This article examines the trends and possible causes of mortality from ill-defined conditions in Russia. During 1991During -2005, mortality from ill-defined conditions in Russia increased in all age groups. The pace of increase was particularly high at working ages and the mean expected age at death from ill-defined conditions has shifted to younger ages, particularly for men. The analysis of individual medical death certificates issued in Kirov and Smolensk regions of Russia demonstrate that 89-100% of working-age deaths from ill-defined conditions correspond to human bodies found in a state of decomposition. Data from Smolensk region shows that over 60% of these decedents were unemployed. Temporal trends of mortality from ill-defined conditions and injuries of undetermined intent in Moscow city suggest that deaths from the latter cause were probably misclassified as ill-defined conditions. This practice can lead to underestimation of mortality from external causes. Growing number of socially isolated marginalized people in Russia and insufficient investigation of the circumstances of their death contribute to the observed trends in mortality from ill-defined conditions.

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“…Andrienko (2001) and Pridemore (2002a) have shown alcohol consumption to be associated with the growth of crime and violence in Russia and with the spatial distribution of regional homicide rates in the country, respectively. Thus, we used Pridemore's (2002a) proxy for heavy drinking, which was the regional age-standardized rate (per one hundred thousand) of deaths due to alcohol poisoning (examples of and reasons for using this proxy in Russia are explained elsewhere: Chenet et al [2001]; Shkolnikov, McKee, and Leon [2001]; Shkolnikov and Meslé [1996]).…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Democratization and Political Change as Threats to Collective Sentiments: Testing Durkheim in Russia

Pridemore¹,

Sang-Weon

2006

The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Scie

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Durkheim argued that acute political crises result in increased homicide rates because they pose a threat to sentiments about the collective. Though crucial to Durkheim's work on homicide, this idea remains untested. The authors took advantage of the natural experiment of the collapse of the Soviet Union to examine this hypothesis. Using data from Russian regions (N = 78) and controlling for measures of anomie and other covariates, the authors estimated the association between political change and change in homicide rates between 1991 and 2000. Results indicated that regions exhibiting less support for the Communist Party in 2000 (and thus greater change in political ideals because the Party had previously exercised complete control) were regions with greater increases in homicide rates. Thus, while democratization may be a positive development relative to the Communist juggernaut of the past, it appears that the swift political change in Russia is partially responsible for the higher rates of violence there following the collapse of the Soviet Union. KeywordsRussia; democratization; political change; crime; violence; homicide In this study, we drew upon Durkheim's (1897/1979) ideas on threats against collective sentiments to examine the association between political change and homicide rates in Russia.

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Vodka and Violence: Alcohol Consumption and Homicide Rates in Russia

Cited by 158 publications

References 53 publications

Alcohol and Homicide in Russia and the United States: A Comparative Analysis

Alcohol and Homicide in Russia and the United States: A Comparative Analysis

Russian Mortality Crisis and the Quality of Vital Statistics

Democratization and Political Change as Threats to Collective Sentiments: Testing Durkheim in Russia

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