NCJ Number
242025
Journal
Journal of Criminal Justice Volume: 41 Issue: 2 Dated: March/April 2013 Pages: 72-80
Date Published
April 2013
Length
9 pages
Annotation
This article discusses individual-level interventions targeted aimed at reducing the risk of violence associated with social drinking.
Abstract
This article examines the problem of alcohol-related violence and discusses individual-level interventions aimed at reducing the problem. Previous research has found that violence associated with social drinking has developed into a major public health problem that can be dealt with at several levels, including family, individual, and societal. The paper begins with a discussion of the processes that explain the increased risk of violence associated with social drinking. These processes are social information processing and automatic information processing, which are discussed in detail in the article. A discussion is also included on knowledge structures in long-term memory that act as determinants in how people interpret and respond to social events. These structures include alcohol outcome expectancies, alcohol-aggression outcome expectancies, scripts, and expectancies of confidence and social facilitation. The discussion on knowledge structures is followed by information on the role of emotions in information processing as they relate to social drinking situations. The final section of the article discusses individual-level interventions for reducing the risk of alcohol-related violence. The interventions discussed in the article are attentional retraining, facial emotion recognition retraining, acting sober, expectancy challenge, improving social confidence, mindfulness, acknowledging excitement, implementation intentions, de-escalation techniques, and social problem solving. Table and references