Facts

Baltimore children who live in close proximity to alcohol outlets are at increased risk of seeing people selling drugs.¹ An estimated 54.8 percent of Baltimore City public school children have at least one liquor store within a quarter mile of their home, while only 13.1 percent have a grocery store within a quarter mile.¹

Greater alcohol outlet density is also associated with a greater likelihood of underage persons obtaining alcohol.²

In Baltimore City, each additional alcohol outlet in a neighborhood is associated with a 2.2% increase in violent crime, with each additional outlet selling alcohol for off-premise consumption associated with a 4.8% increase.³ This matches findings in other urban areas, including Los Angeles County,⁴ Cleveland,⁵ and Newark, New Jersey.⁶

More violence, including intimate partner violence⁷ and youth homicides⁸, tends to accompany more alcohol outlets. This association has been found in urban areas, like Cincinnati, OH⁹; Philadelphia, PA¹⁰; and Norfolk, VA¹¹ as well as suburban areas like Bloomington, IN¹² among others.

A study using 2006-2010 Baltimore City police data found each increase in the number of alcohol outlets in the city was associated with a 2.2% increase in violent crime (i.e., rape, aggravated assault, homicide/manslaughter, and robbery), even after controlling for community disadvantage, percent African American, percent occupied housing, and drug arrests.¹³

Click here to see a map³ depicting how alcohol outlets relate to violent crime in Baltimore City.

Baltimore Alcohol & Violence Fact Sheet (PDF)
Baltimore Alcohol & Violence Fact Sheet References
2018 Baltimore Sun Op-Ed

Alcohol outlets are associated with a higher prevalence of drinking-driving crashes,¹⁴ and contribute to a range of other neighborhood problems, including nuisances such as property damage, public urination and noise. All of these contribute to community-level trauma.¹⁵ 

Regulation of Alcohol Outlet Density

Alcohol outlet density regulation is defined as applying regulatory authority to reduce alcoholic beverage outlet density or to limit the increase of alcoholic beverage outlet density. Regulation is often implemented through licensing or zoning processes. An alcohol outlet is a place where alcohol may be legally sold for the buyer to drink there (on-premises outlets, such as bars or restaurants) or elsewhere (off-premises outlets, such as liquor stores). Density refers to the number of alcohol outlets in a given area.

Summary of Task Force Recommendations and Findings

The Community Preventive Services Task Force recommends the use of regulatory authority (e.g., through licensing and zoning) to limit alcohol outlet density on the basis of sufficient evidence of a positive association between outlet density and excessive alcohol consumption and related harms. It’s also a World Health Organization “Best Buy.”

Read more about the Task Force’s review of alcohol outlet density zoning as a recommendation to address excessive alcohol consumption.

The intent of a state-specific legal analysis is to provide educational resources to community coalitions, policy analysts, municipal governments and others assessing potential responses, both at the local and state level, to the problems created by retail availability of alcohol.

State preemption is the legal doctrine that determines the level of local control over decisions affecting alcohol outlet density in a given state. Local governments have the authority to regulate alcohol outlet density only to the extent that the state grants them that authority.

Click here to find out how your community can make a difference! 

Download Maryland Legal Analysis PDF

Strategizer 55

Community Anti-Drug Coalitions of America (CADCA) and the Center on Alcohol Marketing and Youth (CAMY) at The Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health have developed Strategizers to assist state and local public health departments and communities in planning, implementing, and evaluating prevention strategies recommended by the independent, non-federal Community Preventive Services Task Force. These recommendations are based on systematic reviews of the available scientific evidence of the effectiveness of public health strategies in preventing excessive alcohol consumption and related harms.

Summaries of the Task Force’s recommendations and the research on which they are based can be accessed on the Community Guide website.

This Strategizer supports community efforts to reduce the number of places that sell and serve alcohol by providing information and guidance on implementing public health and legal strategies.

Although state and local public health departments are the primary audience for this Action Guide, it is also intended to support the work of community coalitions on the prevention of excessive alcohol consumption, and to help build collaborations between these coalitions and public health agencies in achieving this share objective.

Download Alcohol Outlet Density: Strategizer 55 (PDF)