| Wood,
Darryl S. and Gruenewald, Paul J. (Mar 2006). "Local Alcohol Prohibition,
Police Presence and Serious Injury in Isolated Alaska Native Villages."
Addiction 101: 393-403.
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Abstract:
Aims: To consider the effects of alcohol prohibition
and police presence upon serious injury in isolated Alaska Native villages.
Design: We compared rates of injury attributed
to assault, self-harm, motor vehicle collisions and ‘other causes’
between villages with or without local prohibition and between villages
with or without local police. Negative binomial regression was used to
assess the relative effects of prohibition and police presence upon serious
injury rates net of potential confounders. Participants:
A total of 132 isolated Alaska Native villages between the years 1991
through 2000. Measurements: Serious injury was
measured using Alaska Trauma Registry and Alaska Bureau of Vital Statistics
death certificate records. Local option election records were used to
classify cases as occurring in wet or dry villages and police deployment
records were used to classify cases as occurring in villages with or without
local police. Village-level statistics from the 1990 and 2000 US censuses
were used in the negative binomial regression analyses. Findings:
Villages that prohibited alcohol had lower age-adjusted rates of serious
injury resulting from assault, motor vehicle collisions and ‘other
causes’. Dry villages with a local police presence had a lower age-adjusted
rate of serious injury caused by assault. Controlling for the relative
effects of village isolation, access to alcohol markets and local demographic
structures, local prohibition was associated with lower rates of assault
injuries and ‘other causes’ injuries while local police presence
was associated with lower rates of assault injuries. Conclusions:
Residents of isolated Alaska Native villages are safer when they prohibit
alcohol. A local police presence in dry villages provides further reduction
of the incidence of assault.
Note:
This article is copyrighted by the journal Addiction,
and thus cannot be published online at the Justice Center website.
However, copies of the article are available by emailing Dr. Darryl Wood
at wood@uaa.alaska.edu.
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