The Role of Alcohol in Violence: The Individual, Small Group, Community and Cultural Level

The goal of this paper is to review our understanding of the role that alcohol plays in violence. This paper provides a literature review of various theoretical mechanisms and of empirical tests of those theoretical propositions across four different levels of analysis: individual, small group, community, and cultural. Alcohol-violence association is evident in not only the individuals who consume alcohol, but also in the social interactions of those individuals, the communities, and the countries in which those individuals live. Acknowledging the alcohol-violence association at one level, without considering the influence of alcohol on violence at other levels, fails to capture the complex role that alcohol plays in violence. This paper concludes with a summary of critical findings, implications for practice, policy, and research advanced by this theoretical and empirical review, a discussion of limitations in the knowledge, and directions for future research.