Abstract
Across the United States, cities have begun limiting the number of liquor licenses they issue. Behind such legislation is a belief that the more alcohol outlets there are, the more the problems there will be. However, such a hypothesis has never been rigorously tested. This study will examine a mid-size town with an extremely high density of liquor licenses. Looking at crime data over a 1-year period, and in three different areas, results show that what affects crime the most is not how many liquor licenses there are, but what kinds of licenses exist. Bars that did not promote overconsumption had relatively low crime rates surrounding their establishments, even if they were in a high-density area of alcohol outlets. This is compared to bars that had irresponsible serving practices, all of which had very high crime rates around their establishments.
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Notes
3 Originally the program was called the RWJ Project. After the grant was renewed in 2002, the RWJ Project changed its name to the PACE Project, which stands for Policy, Alternatives, Community, and Education.
4 All density calculations were done using “kernel density.” Kernel density estimation is a useful tool to calculate density as it precisely identifies the location, spatial extent, and intensity of crime hotspots (Chainey, 2002).
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I thank the late Professor Dennis Roncek for all his helpful comments on each draft of this paper. His thoughtful insights were critical in getting the manuscript in publishable form.
2 The University of Wisconsin-Madison is a large university with approximately 40,000 graduate and undergraduate students, located in Madison, the capital of Wisconsin. The city itself is located 150 mi/241 km northwest of Chicago, IL, U.S.A.
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Lugo, W. Alcohol and Crime: Beyond Density. Secur J 21, 229–245 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1057/palgrave.sj.8350056
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/palgrave.sj.8350056