ABSTRACT
American cultural images of the association between alcohol and violence are evident in films depicting wild-west barroom brawls and in Tennessee Williams's notable characterization of the drunken, boorish Stanley Kowalski striking his pregnant wife, Stella. These images link alcohol and aggression and suggest that excess drinking is the principal cause of violence; and that drunkenness and wife beating are culturally scripted masculine behaviors. Central to suppositions of a direct alcohol-violence linkage are centuries-old and widely held beliefs that alcohol releases inhibitions and alters judgment. MacAndrew and Robert B. Edgerton's classic cross-cultural analysis provides an alternative explanation of the alcohol-violence linkage. Pernanen's comprehensive theoretical reviews demonstrate the complexity of the association between alcohol and violence. To a great extent, the literature has lacked consensus on even the elementary question of whether there is a correlation between drinking and intrafamily violence. The first model tested, a saturated model, examines interaction effects between husband-to-wife violence, the drinking index, norms, and occupational status.
