Making the link: A public health approach to preventing alcohol-related violence and crime

The public health and criminal justice fields have an unprecedented opportunity for collaboration. Both the 'broken windows' and the public health perspectives focus attention on actions in local communities to change the environmental factors that breed both alcohol problems and the crime and violence often associated with them. The paper introduces the public health perspective by reviewing the history of conceptualizations of alcohol problems in the United States, and showing how the public health perspective builds on and expands earlier views. Following a summary of research regarding causal links between alcohol and crime and violence, the paper summarizes research findings demonstrating the efficacy of policy options to influence alcohol environments, broken down into measures that counter each of the marketing elements of price, place, promotion and product. The paper concludes by underlining the importance of local action, organization and the development of advocacy skills, as well as the tremendous potential inherent in the nascent coming together of criminal justice and public health action to prevent alcohol-related crime and violence.