Predictors and severity of injury in assaults with barglasses and bottles.
BACKGROUND
Although glasses and bottles are frequently used as weapons in assaults, there is little knowledge on which prevention strategies can be based.


METHODS
Scrutiny of a random sample of 1288 criminal injury compensation applications.


OBJECTIVE
To identify predictors and relative severity of glass and bottle injury.


METHODS
Injury site, severity, treatment, and demographic characteristics of victims and assailants were studied with reference to awards from the UK national Criminal Injuries Compensation Authority (CICA).


METHODS
Gender of victims and assailants, injury sites, treatment, and award (UK pounds) as indices of injury severity.


RESULTS
Annual CICA awards to all victims of assaults in licensed premises during 1996-98 amounted to pound 4.08 million (for all glass/bottle assaults: pound 1.15 million = 28%). The mean cost of 746 glass assaults was pound 2347, compared with pound 2007 for 542 injuries from bottle assaults (mean difference pound 340; p<0.01). This difference largely reflected more eye injuries with glasses (26 cases: 3% of all glass assaults) than with bottles (eight cases: 1% of all bottle assaults). Bottle assault was significantly associated with unidentified assailants and scalp injuries; whereas glass injury was significantly linked to pub opening hours (midday to midnight), Thursdays, eye and face injuries, and treatment requiring sutures. Mean age of bottle assault victims (26.1 years) was lower than of glass victims (27.3 years; p<0.01), and same gender assaults were more frequent than between gender assaults for both bottle (p<0.001) and glass (p<0.001) assaults. Female victims were allocated to lower compensation awards more frequently than male victims; this was the case for both bottle (p<0.05) and glass (p<0.01) assaults.


CONCLUSIONS
Assaults with bottles caused less serious injury and resulted in lower compensation costs. Injury distribution was linked to victim gender and weapon choice, but not to assailant gender. Prevention strategies should focus on both bottle and glass assaults and should take account of the setting and time in which drinking occurs.
Coomaraswamy
K S
KS
Violence Research Group, University of Wales, College of Medicine, Cardiff, UK.
Shepherd
J P
JP
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D035881:Compensation and Redress; D005131:Eye Injuries / Q000191:economics / Q000209:etiology; D005260:Female; D005898:Glass; D006794:Household Articles; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D012737:Sex Factors; D013997:Time Factors; D015599:Trauma Severity Indices; D006113:United Kingdom; D014754:Violence / Q000191:economics; D014947:Wounds and Injuries / Q000191:economics / Q000209:etiology*