Alcohol Outlets,Social Disorganization,Land Use,and Violence in a Large College Town

Abstract

This study examined the direct and moderating effects of alcohol outlet density, social disorganization, and land use on violence in a large college town whose economy is driven by the presence of a flagship state university. Empirical literature points to a consistent association between alcohol outlet density and assault density, and recent research has found social disorganization and land use to moderate the association in urban areas. However, little research has been done to determine whether similar associations hold outside large urban cities. Using geocoded data on assaults and alcohol outlets in Bloomington, Indiana, we estimated ordinary least squares and spatially lagged regression models to determine whether social disorganization and land use moderate the association between alcohol outlet density and assault. We found a consistent association between outlet density and assault density. In contrast to the findings from urban areas, however, the direct effects of social disorganization and of seven land use types on simple assault density were nonsignificant, nor was social disorganization associated with aggravated assault. Further, the relationship between alcohol outlet density and assault density was moderated by neither social disorganization nor land use. Ecological characteristics like social disorganization and land use may matter less in smaller cities and towns than they do in large urban cities, both in terms of direct effects and when accounting for the relationship between alcohol outlet density and violence.