Alcohol, Violence and Aggression

Abstract

The literature relating the consumption of alcohol to various kinds of violent or aggressive behaviour such as accident, suicide, rape, marital assault and homicide was reviewed. The causal basis of alcohol-related acts of violence was discussed and, in this respect, the usefulness of the concept of ‘aggression’ was evaluated. A critique of some experimental work involving both human and animal subjects was also presented. It was argued that the data from human and animal studies indicated that the causal basis of alcohol-related violence was most complex and it was unlikely that this drug should influence such behaviour through a single mechanism eg by increasing ‘aggression’. It seemed that within the same category of violence a number of plausible explanations for the action of alcohol existed and that this drug might simultaneously contribute to the completion of violent acts in a number of ways.