Alcohol's role in domestic violence: a contributing cause or an excuse?
OBJECTIVE
This paper reviews evidence regarding the deviance disavowal approach to alcohol-related violence. It focuses on whether alcohol intoxication is used to excuse domestic violence, and whether this can explain alcohol/violence association.


METHODS
Four hypotheses derived from the deviance disavowal approach were identified, including (i) people accept alcohol as a cause of violence; (ii) people attribute less blame and punishment to intoxicated aggressors than to sober aggressors; (iii) the belief that alcohol causes or excuses violence should be associated with and predict the occurrence of alcohol-related domestic violence; and (iv) the administration of a placebo should increase aggressive behaviour.


RESULTS
The review suggested that some people do accept alcohol as a cause of violence, but that alcohol does not appear to mitigate blame, and this belief is not longitudinally predictive of violence.


CONCLUSIONS
The evidence for a deviance disavowal model of alcohol and domestic violence appears quite weak.
Leonard
K E
KE
Research Institute on Addictions, University at Buffalo, State University of New York and Department of Psychiatry, School of Medicine, University at Buffalo, State University of New York, USA.
D000374:Aggression / Q000523:psychology; D000428:Alcohol Drinking / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000523:psychology*; D017579:Domestic Violence / Q000523:psychology* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D012919:Social Behavior; D012941:Social Responsibility