![[ Visit Client Website ]](images/banner.gif)
Methods: From six mid-sized California cities we assessed all licensed barrooms (N=165) for basic operating conditions, and then in a subset of these (n=112) we conducted in-depth ethnographic observations, coding the social and physical environments of barrooms using a 112-item checklist and documenting the observations in textual fieldnotes. We conducted Systematic Social Observations (SSO) on neighborhood settings around the sample bars, and we collected police reports on alcohol-involved assaults from 4 of the 6 cities. To understand the social and cultural aspects of barroom operations which might contribute to community alcohol risk we conducted confidential in-person interviews with one staff member (bartender) and one long-time patron (regular) from 36 bars within our sample.
We combined data from ethnographic observations of barrooms and from SSO of the local areas around these bars together with police-reported assault data in the associated cities. We used multilevel models to assess statistical relationships between barroom and neighborhood characteristics and police reported assaults around bars within the four cities (assault events nested within buffered areas around bars). We analyzed qualitative bar observation fieldnotes and transcribed interviews for recurring and salient themes.
Results: More patrons, more dancing and louder music within bars, and higher density of bars in an area, correlated with increased risks for bar-area assaults. Specific bar practices contributed to these risks. Some bars deliberately altered their operating conditions in the late night hours to increase patronage—restaurants became more bar-like, bars became more nightclub-like. In some bars, managers were said to tolerate and even encourage heavy drinking but then move alcohol-related problems (e.g., fighting, intoxicated patrons) outside the barroom.
Conclusions: Problems associated with bars may devolve from the ecological settings within which bars develop as businesses. A high density of bars encourages competition for patrons among bar managers. Bar practices aimed at increasing bar revenue while reducing bar risks merely offload risks and costs from bar managers to city officials. City alcohol control policies which clearly define bar operating conditions e.g., bar closes when food service closes) and restrict and reduce density may reduce the risk and burden of alcohol-related problems on communities.