Restrictions on sales of alcohol in inner city places

Blurry Memories
Originally uploaded by FotoEdge

This is a subject I've been involved in over the years. There are current proposals to have singles sales restrictions in various wards of DC.

There are a few studies of sales and the impact on crime by professors such as Dennis Gorman and Richard Scribner, and John DiIlulio reports on other studies in BODY COUNT: Moral Poverty...And How to Win America's War Against Crime and Drugs . The State of Washington too has done studies.

But it's important to be sure that the regulations are well-crafted. If they focus on brands rather than product types, producers will get around the restrictions by introducing new and different brands.

The report Alcohol Outlets as Attractors of Violence and Disorder: A Closer Look at the Neighborhood Environment found that a high density of on-premise outlets (bars and restaurants) is a significant predictor of aggravated assault and that both on-premise and off-premise outlets when in high concentrations are associated with high levels of disorderly conduct. But only off-premise outlets have a positive relationship to domestic violence calls for services.

But the study is somewhat limited because it doesn't look at other measures of disorder, because they relied on calls for service to police and emergency workers as a data set. With broader data, including site surveys and analysis, likely there would be connections between off-premise sales and links to disorder.