Decades of research has shown that alcohol contributes to violence in a couple of ways. Where alcohol businesses cluster, violence follows. And although most people who consume alcohol do so safely, people who have been drinking are also more prone to conflict. Perpetrators of homicide are rarely apprehended in time to measure their toxicology, but a global meta-analysis found that about half of killers were under the influence of alcohol at the time of their crimes. Data is more reliably collected from the dead, and in Baltimore between 2017 and 2021, nearly a quarter of homicide victims had alcohol in their blood, according to the Maryland Violent Death Reporting System, similar to patterns nationwide.
Excessive drinking is no more common in Baltimore than elsewhere in the state, according to the data. But because the city has long endured an extraordinarily high rate of gun violence, public health scientists there have dug into the role that alcohol sales play in fueling it. And residents and a few policymakers have pushed reforms that are more creative and ambitious than in any other American city. In several neighborhoods that require alcohol outlets to close earlier than the regular call-time of 2 a.m., a recent study suggests, the change may be playing an unheralded role in the city’s decline in homicides.
Full story: To Battle the Bullet, Baltimore Goes After the Bottle
