The Effect of a Sunday Liquor Sales Ban Repeal on Crime: A Triple Difference Analysis

Details

• Alternative Title:
  Alcohol Clin Exp Res
• Personal Author:
  Han, SeungHoon ; Branas, Charles C. ; MacDonald, John M.
• Description:
  Background
  
  This paper investigates whether alcohol availability in state-run liquor stores affects crime nearby. In 2003, Pennsylvania repealed its Sunday alcohol sales ban for a portion of its state-run liquor stores. We capitalize on this change in alcohol policy to assess the effect of alcohol availability on crime occurring within the vicinity of liquor stores that opened on Sundays in Philadelphia.
  
  Methods
  
  We employed a difference-in-difference-in-differences model that compared reported crime before versus after the change in alcohol policy, Sundays versus other days of the week, and the fraction of liquor stores affected versus not affected by the repeal. We used crime incident data in Philadelphia between 1998 and 2011.
  
  Results
  
  The repeal was associated with a significant increase in total and property crime incidents occurring around Sunday-open state liquor stores in low socioeconomic status neighborhoods. We found no evidence of the displacement of crime to nearby areas.
  
  Conclusions
  
  This is the first triple-difference alcohol study that attempts to isolate the micro-spatial effects of a shift in alcohol availability on local crime patterns, and shows that the repeal of Sunday alcohol sales restrictions may increase crime in poor urban areas.
  
  
• Subjects:
  Alcoholic Beverages Commerce Crime Humans Pennsylvania Poverty Urban Population
• Keywords:
  Alcohol Availability Blue Law Crime Low SES Neighborhood Triple Difference
• Source:
  Alcohol Clin Exp Res. 40(5):1111-1121
• Pubmed ID:
  27080017
• Pubmed Central ID:
  PMC5464788
• Document Type:
  Journal Article
• Funding:
  R01 AA016187/AA/NIAAA NIH HHSUnited States/ ; R49 CE002474/CE/NCIPC CDC HHSUnited States/
• Volume:
  40
• Issue:
  5
• Collection(s):
  CDC Public Access
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha256:fa187ebf9bc6537c350bba2ea10f1674264ead201b879da7ef14a45f4112a730
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/46143/cdc_46143_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 548.18 KB ]