The effect of restricting opening hours on alcohol-related violence

Objective. We investigated whether limiting the hours of alcoholic beverage sales in bars had an effect on homicides and violence against women in the Brazilian city of Diadema. The policy to restrict alcohol sales was introduced in July 2002 and prohibited on-premises alcohol sales after 11 pm.Methods. We analyzed data on homicides (1995 to 2005) and violence against women (2000 to 2005) from the Diadema (population 360 000) police archives using log-linear regression analyses.Results. The new restriction on drinking hours led to a decrease of almost 9 murders a month. Assaults against women also decreased, but this effect was not significant in models in which we controlled for underlying trends.Conclusions. Introducing restrictions on opening hours resulted in a significant decrease in murders, which confirmed what we know from the literature: restricting access to alcohol can reduce alcohol-related problems. Our results give no support to the converse view, that increasing availability will somehow reduce problems.Restricting alcohol availability may reduce alcohol consumption and associated harm, including violence.1 Conversely, relaxing restrictions on the availability of alcohol may lead to increased consumption and problems.2^–6 Thus, for example, neighborhoods that have more bars and alcohol outlets per capita experience more violence.7^–9 Studies of licensing hours have for the most part investigated only modest changes (e.g., extending closing times from midnight to 1:00 am). Such changes might be expected to have only minimal effects. Moreover, these studies have been limited to North America, Europe, or Australia. No studies have examined the effects of changes in sales hours in developing countries, where the alcohol market is largely unregulated. Going beyond previous research, we report on the effects on assaults on women and homicides of a new law significantly restricting sales hours for bars in the Brazilian city of Diadema.A significant proportion of the Brazilian population (17% of men and 6% of women) report alcohol-related problems.10^,11 During 1988–1999, more than 84% of hospital admissions for addictions related to alcohol.12 Alcohol-related violence is also a serious problem. A 1995 São Paulo study found that alcohol was involved in 18 000 homicides, 15% of the 120 111 studied.13 An analysis of 130 homicides in Curitiba from 1990 to 1995 showed that 54% of the victims and 60% of the perpetrators were under the influence of alcohol during the crime.14 These findings highlight the urgent need for new and effective alcohol control policies in Brazil, yet there are few. There is a minimum age to buy and drink alcohol (18 years), there are time restrictions on advertising liquor, although not beer or wine (no television advertising allowed between 6 am and 9 pm), and the blood alcohol limit for drivers is 0.06 g/L. However these policies are poorly enforced, alcohol is cheap and readily available, and there is a high density of retail outlets that sell alcohol (e.g., 1 for every 16 people in a São Paulo suburb).15Diadema, 20 km from the center of São Paulo, is an industrial city with a population (357 064) of predominantly low socioeconomic status. In 1999, Diadema had one of the highest homicide rates in Brazil (103 per 100 000 inhabitants), of which 65% were alcohol related.16 The mayor was concerned about the high murder rate, and police statistics showed that most murders and assaults on women occurred in or close to bars between 11 pm and 6 am. As a result, in July 2002, a new law was introduced in Diadema that closed all bars at 11 pm. Before the law, most bars remained open 24 hours. To evaluate the effect of the new licensing law, we addressed the questions: do the new restrictions reduce murders or assaults against women or both?