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Further findings on assaultiveness and alcohol use in interpersonal disputes
Author(s) -
Zacker Joseph,
Bard Morton
Publication year - 1977
Publication title -
american journal of community psychology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.113
H-Index - 112
eISSN - 1573-2770
pISSN - 0091-0562
DOI - 10.1007/bf00877941
Subject(s) - closeness , health psychology , interpersonal communication , psychology , social psychology , psychological intervention , criminology , domestic violence , poison control , public health , human factors and ergonomics , suicide prevention , environmental health , medicine , psychiatry , nursing , mathematical analysis , mathematics
In a previous study uniform observational data were collected regarding family disputes managed by police officers; those data contradicted views commonly held by social scientists and by police about the roles of assaultiveness and alcohol use in these events. In the present study police officers employed systematic naturalistic observation during their interventions as third parties in disputes between nonfamily members as well as those between family members. Tentative conclusions about assaultiveness, based on the data of both studies, are that it: does not usually precede the arrival of police in such disputes; is associated with interpersonal closeness of the disputants; is associated with poverty rather than race; and is as likely in a middle-class small city as in a poor inner-city area. Tentative conclusions about the use of alcohol in police-managed interpersonal disputes are: that these disputes are not usually influenced by alcohol use; and that assaultiveness is not related to alcohol use in such disputes.