CURRENT AND RECENTLY COMPLETED PROJECTS
A
Comprehensive Analysis of State Alcohol Policy Environment
and Its Effects
Funded by the National Institute on Alcohol
Abuse and Alcoholism
Principal Investigator: Darin Erickson, PhD
Co-Investigator: Traci Toomey, PhD; Toben Nelson, ScD; Rhonda
Jones-Webb, PhD
Goals:
(1) Develop a measure of the strength of specific alcohol
control policies across states.
(2) Measure the state alcohol policy environment using latent
variable analyses.
(3) Assess level of enforcement of alcohol policies within
each state.
(4) Assess the relationships between the alcohol policy environment
and related consequences including alcohol consumption, traffic
crash mortality and several other specific types of injury-related
deaths, and assess how enforcement levels influence these
relationships.
State and Local Alcohol Policies: The Case of Malt Liquor
Funded by the National Institute on Alcohol
Abuse and Alcoholism
Principal Investigator: Rhonda Jones-Webb, PhD
Co-Investigators: Traci Toomey, PhD; Darin Erickson, PhD; Toben Nelson, ScD
Goals:
1) Develop new measures of the restrictiveness of malt liquor policies and other local alcohol policies.
2) Evaluate the effectiveness of malt liquor policies in reducing crime associated with malt liquor consumption in 19 U.S. cities using an interrupted time-series design with control group.
3) Assess whether the effects of malt liquor policies on crime vary by the state alcohol policy environment using panel regression models or pooled time-series.
Spatial
and Temporal Effects of Alcohol Compliance Checks
Funded by the National Institute on Alcohol
Abuse and Alcoholism
Principal Investigator: Darin Erickson, PhD
Co-Investigators: Bradley Carlin, PhD; Traci Toomey, PhD;
Alexander Wagenaar, PhD
The overall goal of this project was to assess whether a pattern
of law enforcement compliance checks exists that maximizes effects of the checks
for reducing illegal alcohol sales to underage youth. We
assessed effects of the temporal frequency of compliance checks
(e.g., every 2 months, every 6 months), the spatial frequency
of compliance checks (e.g., every establishment, one establishment
per block), as well as a possible interaction between the
two (e.g., every establishment at least once a year with a
nearby establishment every three months).
Assessing Density of Alcohol Outlets, Other Outlets and Crime
Funded
by the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism
Principal Investigator: Traci Toomey, PhD
Co-Investigators: Bradley Carlin, PhD; Darin Erickson, PhD; Eileen Harwood, PhD
Goals:
The goal of this two-year study was to evaluate whether the density of alcohol establishments is related to alcohol-related crime and whether the presence of other physical structures (e.g., non-alcohol businesses, parks) and levels of neighborhood activism moderate this effect. In one Midwestern city we assessed whether: (1) densities of different types of alcohol establishments were positively related to a wide range of alcohol-related crimes; (2) densities of non-alcohol businesses and other neighborhood physical structures (i.e., parks, schools, and religious institutions), and levels of neighborhood activism were associated with crime rates; and (3) these neighborhood structures and activism moderate the observed associations between densities of alcohol establishments and different types of crime.
Publications:
11.6.186 Toomey TL, Erickson DJ, Carlin BP, Quick HS, Harwood EM, Lenk KM, Ecklund AM. Is the density of alcohol establishments related to nonviolent crime? Journal of Studies on Alcohol and Drugs, 73(1):21-25, 2012.
11.6.189 Toomey TL, Erickson DJ, Carlin BP, Lenk KM, Quick HS, Jones A. Harwood EM. The association between density of alcohol establishments and violent crime within urban neighborhoods. Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research. 36(8):1468-1473, 2012.
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