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ALCOHOL AND ASSAULT: A COMPARATIVE TIME SERIES ANALYSIS. ROBERT NASH PARKER ANN HOPE NORMAN GIESBRECHT. FIRST EXAMPLE OF NEW INTERNATIONAL COMPARATIVE PROJECT. ASSAULT AND ALCOHOL ASSAULT MAJOR SOCIAL PROBLEM LITERATURE IN CRIMINOLOGY NOT EXTENSIVE
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ALCOHOL AND ASSAULT: A COMPARATIVE TIME SERIES ANALYSIS ROBERT NASH PARKER ANN HOPE NORMAN GIESBRECHT
FIRST EXAMPLE OF NEW INTERNATIONAL COMPARATIVE PROJECT • ASSAULT AND ALCOHOL • ASSAULT MAJOR SOCIAL PROBLEM • LITERATURE IN CRIMINOLOGY NOT EXTENSIVE • IMPACT OF ALCOHOL MAY LEAD TO POLICY IMPLICATIONS • GREATER POTENTIAL FOR HARM REDUCTION
DESIGN OF THIS PAPER • THREE COUNTRY COMPARATIVE TIME SERIES ANALYSIS • CHARACTERISTICS: • LONG TIME SERIES (1950-2006) • ALCOHOL AS TOTAL PURE LITERS PER CAPITA • ALL CRIMINAL ASSAULTS EXCLUDING SEXUAL ASSAULT
METHODOLOGICAL APPROACH • CONCEPTUAL APPROACH • SIGNAL TO NOISE • USED IN DOZENS OF SCIENTIFIC DISCIPLINES: ELCTRONICS, ASTRONOMY, ENGINEERING, PSYCHOLOGY, SOCIOLOGY • ARIMA MODELS • IDENTIFCATION PHASE • IDENTIFY THE NOISE COMPONENTS
METHODOLOGICAL APPROACH (CONT) • AR: SHORT TERM WEIGHTED EFFECTS AT LAG X • I: SIMPLE UNWEIGHTED EFFECT AT LAG X • MA: WEIGHTED AVERAGES OF CURRENT AND LAG(S) UP TO AND INCLUDING X
EXAMPLE: IRELAND • AUTOCORRELATION FUNCTION AND PARTIAL AUTOCORRELATION FUNCTION USED TO IDENTIFY COMPONENTS • IDENTIFY TENTATIVELY A TYPE AT A LAG X, MODEL, RE-TEST WITH ACF AND PACF • ITERATIVE PROCESS
MODEL FOR ASSAULTS PREDICTED BY ALCOHOL IN IRELAND 1950-2006 • RESULTS: • AR(1) = -0.40 (3.13**) • Alcohol = .272 (4.02**) • For US: significant impact of Beer on assaults; null results for Canada
DISCUSSION • What have we learned from comparative method? • Despite Canada’s high assault, preliminary analysis finds no link to alcohol • While total consumption per capita predicted assaults in Ireland, only beer seemed significant in the US • Two of three countries show alcohol and assault relationship
CONCLUSION • International Project on Alcohol and Assault shows promise • Potential for large scale harm reduction from reducing alcohol consumption and thus reducing significantly the assault rate • Please join us in this project: email robnp@aol.com to be added to the list and receive in the next month or so a first attempt to survey alcohol and assault time series data availability across the world