Drinking, personality, and bar environmental characteristics as predictors of involvement in barroom aggression

Theoretical approaches to alcohol and violence have emphasized three interrelated domains of influence: the situational context, aggression-facilitating characteristics of individuals, and the impact of alcohol consumption. We examined these three domains as predictors of experiencing violence in the barroom setting. Participants were recruited through one of two phone surveys or through newspaper advertisements and classified into one of three groups: Experienced Bar Violence (EBV), Observed Bar Violence (OBV), and No Bar Violence (NBV). They completed questionnaires assessing individual difference and alcohol use variables, and an interview that assessed characteristics of their usual bar. The results suggested that individual difference and alcohol variables distinguished men in the EBV group from men in the OBV and NBV groups. However, women in the EBV group were distinguished from women in the NBV group by the characteristics of their usual bar and by the alcohol variables, but were distinguished from the OBV group only in terms of individual difference variables. The implications of these findings with respect to the influence of alcohol on barroom violence are discussed.