Headline: RESEARCHER CONNECTS LIQUOR STORES, CRIME RATE
Reporter: By Gregory Freeman

Publication: ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH
Last Printed: Fri., Mar. 31, 1995
Section: WAR PAGE, Page: 5B, Edition: FIVE STAR

A LOUISIANA STATE University Medical Center researcher has found what some have long suspected - that the number of liquor stores in a community has a direct relationship to the rate of violent crime.
  
Richard A. Scribner, a criminologist at the university in New Orleans, bases his conclusion on a study of 74 cities in Los Angeles County in which he and other researchers calculated the number of liquor outlets and the numbers of murders, rapes, robberies and assaults in 1990.
   According to the study, published Wednesday in the American Journal of Public Health, a city of 50,000 with 100 liquor stores and 570 outbreaks of violent crime a year can expect the increase of one liquor store to account for 3.4 more violent offenses.

Scribner told me by phone that one reason for the research was to help communities in their efforts to fight crime. "If you have that kind of information before you, it makes it easier to come up with ordinances to battle the problems, " he said.
  
"We are all affected by what's around us, by the social institutions for our neighborhoods, " he said. "If a child grows up in a neighborhood where the dominant institution is the liquor store, that child will accept what he sees as the norm, including drunkenness and regular outbreaks of fights. Over a period of time, the culture of this dominant institution will come to affect the community norms and values."

Scribner said that alcohol is involved in more than 50 percent of all assault-related crimes. In addition to regular aggression, Scribner said, alcohol causes an increase in what he calls "defensive" aggression.
  
"That's where people vegetate on one thought and can't get over it, " he said. "Someone did something or disrespected the person in some way, and the person drinking sulks about it and drinks more. They often become more violent at this point."
  
Scribner said liquor outlets are spots where potential victims and potential offenders come together - often with explosive consequences.

Scribner, who did his research while at the University of Southern California, noted that in the 1992 riots of South Central Los Angeles, 256 liquor outlets had been burned.
  
"Since then, there's been a halt of the rebuilding of most of them, " he said. "The community there has fought to keep them out, and a result is that crime is down there."

I checked with the St. Louis Police Department to see if the people there saw any similarities here. Assistant Police Chief Charles McCrary said that while liquor stores were often nuisances, he had seen no direct correlation here between violent crime and alcohol. "We find that liquor stores often bring undesirables, like dope pushers and winos, " he said. "They're often an eyesore and lower property values. But I can't substantiate the report."

On the other hand, Bob Kraiberg, the city's excise commissioner, said he wasn't surprised by the study's results. He noted that his office had been working for several years to improve the situation here.
  
"From the time I got here, one of our objectives has been to reduce the number of package liquor stores here, " he said. "What I found when I got here was that there were twice as many liquor stores north than south. And there's no question that crimes were popping up around those liquor stores."
  
A task force put together in 1989 recommended that the city give much more power to those who live in neighborhoods. The recommendation was adopted. While residents still have little say over stores with existing liquor licenses, they have a great deal to say about who gets new licenses in their neighborhoods.

Another task force formed a couple of years ago changed the criteria for issuing new liquor licenses. Any store seeking such a license now must have:
   A minimum of 1,500 square feet for sales.
   Handle the sale of 750 products other than liquor, tobacco and automotive products.
   Make wholesale purchases of at least $5,000 a month other than liquor, tobacco and automotive products.
"Those rules effectively prevent the addition of more liquor stores, " he said.

The changes have had an effect. In 1986, institutions that had liquor licenses totaled 1,348. That number included bars as well as package liquor stores. Today, 1,059 institutions have them.
  
"I think we're going in the direction of what people want, " Kraiberg said. "They don't want so many liquor stores and all the problems that go with them. We're trying to help in that regard."

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Gregory Freeman's column appears Sunday, Tuesday and Friday ...


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