Berkeley, CA - When bars, liquor stores and other businesses that sell alcohol are located close together in neighborhoods, more assaults and other violent crimes occur in those neighborhoods, according to a growing body of research examined in a newly released white paper.

Government agencies concerned about neighborhood violence can confront this problem though a variety of interventions, including controlling liquor licenses and locations, setting minimum distances between outlets and closing outlets that repeatedly violate liquor laws.

Entitled "How Alcohol Outlets Affect Neighborhood Violence," the paper is written for use in policy development, government, journalism and community advocacy. It is based largely on the work of Paul Gruenewald, Ph.D., scientific director of the Prevention Research Center (PRC), and was authored by Kathryn Stewart, component director for PRC. She is available for presentations on the subject.

The paper is available at: resources.prev.org/documents/AlcoholViolenceGruenewald.pdf.

Other research and materials on environmental strategies for the prevention of alcohol abuse are available on PRC's resource Web site, www.resources.prev.org.