The Influence Of Alcohol Consumption On Increasing Domestic Violence In Karusandara Sub-County, Kasese District

ABSTRACT

The purpose of this project was to determine if calling the police for incidents of

domestic abuse is influenced by substance use of either the abusers or victims. The primary

data source was interview data from 419 women involved in a misdemeanor level incident of

domestic violence, and who had either called the police themselves or had a call made on their

behalE A secondary and minor data source was police reports completed on these incidents.

Calling the police was analyzed for three time periods: total calls to the police over the course

of the relationship, the frequency of calls made in the six-month period prior to the presenting

incident (the abusive episode which entered the case into the study), and the presenting

incident itself. Substance use was measured in multiple ways: the general pattern of alcohol

consumption in terms of both quantity and frequency, frequency diunk, subjective perceptions

of the offender having a problem with alcohol or drugs, frequency and type of drug use.

Results indicate that substance use by male abusers, but not by female victims, is related to

police utilization. Offender drunkenness, rather than the absolute quantity-frequency of

alcohol consumption. escalates police utilization by abused women. This has the most

consistent predictor of calling the police among the substance use measures. Frequency of

calling the police over the length of the relationship is significantly associated with offender

drunkenness, marijuana use, frequency of threats to the victim and hitting the victim, and

race. A majority of women reported that their partners were either drinking or drunk ail the

time of the presenting incident, and offender drinking was the modal cause of the conflict

which led to the abuse.

Most women called the police themselves, or asked a child, neighbor or friend to do so:

onethird wanted the offender arrested at the time they made the call. Substance use at the

presenting incident was less predictive of police utilization than it was for the longer relationship history