Addiction (2001) 96(Supplement 1), S77–S92 Alcohol and homicide: a cross-cultural comparison of the relationship in 14 European countries INGEBORG ROSSOW National Institute for Alcohol and Drug Research, Oslo, Norway Abstract Aims. To assess an empirical basis for cross-national and cross-cultural comparisons of four aspects of the association between alcohol consumption and homicide: the relative strength of the association, the fraction of homicide rates attributable to alcohol consumption, possible gender differences in the association between consumption and victim rates and possible variations in beverage-specic effects on homicide rates. Design, setting and participants. Time series analyses on differenced series of annual aggregate-level data on alcohol sales and homicide rates for the period 1950–95 were performed for each individual country. Estimates were pooled across countries within three regions of alleged differences in drinking pattern: southern Europe, central Europe and northern Europe. Findings. Total alcohol sales were positively and statistically signicantly associated with homicide rates in ve countries. Beer sales were positively and statistically signicantly associated with homicide rates in four countries, wine sales in another two countries, and spirits sales in two countries. The effect of alcohol sales was stronger for male homicide rates than for female homicide rates, and the estimated fraction of homicides that could be attributed to alcohol consumption appeared to be of the same magnitude in the three regions. When estimates were pooled across countries, the strongest association between total sales and homicides was found in the northern European countries and the weakest, but still statistically signicant, in the southern European countries. Pooled estimates showed that beer sales were positively and signicantly associated with homicide rates in all three European regions, whereas wine sales were positively and moderately associated with homicide rates only in the traditional wine drinking cultures in southern Europe. Conclusion. The ndings support the hypothesis that homicide rates are inuenced by alcohol sales and more so in the northern European countries where the drinking culture is, to a larger extent, characterized by heavy drinking episodes. Moreover, the ndings are suggestive of beverage-specic effects on violent behaviour being contingent upon characteristics of the drinking culture. Introduction The role of alcohol in violent behaviour has been assessed in a number of studies applying various designs and methods (for reviews see Lenke, 1990; Pernanen, 1991; Gustafsson, 1995, Bush- man, 1997). To a large extent a positive associ- ation between alcohol consumption (intoxication and heavy drinking) and various forms of violent behaviour have been demonstrated. Hence, a large proportion of offenders of violent crimes have been reported to have been under the inuence of alcohol at the time of the violent behaviour, and also victims of violent behaviour are often intoxicated or inuenced by alcohol at the time of the violent incident (for reviews see Room, 1983; Pernanen, 1991). However, infer- ences of a possible causal role of alcohol in violence remain uncertain from observational Correspondence to: Ingeborg Rossow, National Institute for Alcohol and Drug Research, Øure Slottsgt 20, N-0157 Oslo, Norway. e-mail: ingeborg.m.rossow@sirus.no Submitted 23rd March 2000; initial review completed 1st May 2000; nal version accepted 1st August 2000. ISSN 0965–2140 print/ISSN 1360–0443 online/01/02S077–16 Ó Society for the Study of Addiction to Alcohol and Other Drugs Carfax Publishing, Taylor & Francis Limited DOI: 10.1080/09652140020021198