Portal de Periódicos da CAPES

Alcohol, violence, and the media

2012; Wiley; Volume: 126; Issue: 1 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1111/j.1600-0447.2012.01877.x

1600-0447

Mary C. Van Buskirk, C. D. Janish, Timothy W. Lineberry,

Alcohol Consumption and Health Effects

Substances represent an enormous burden on individuals, families, and countries, yet the risk they portend is not well known to the public. Half of all homicide victims are under the influence of alcohol at the time of their death. In addition, those who perpetrate these crimes use alcohol even more, at a rate of 60%. Alcohol does not cause violence, but is thought to be a facilitating factor. Multiple mechanisms have been proposed to explain this relationship including the environment in which alcohol is consumed, cellular-level effects on the central nervous system, personality predisposition, genetic factors, and previous neurological damage. Although few studies have shown conclusive results explaining this association, the correlation between alcohol and violence remains clear from population-level research in Russia and the US (1, 2). The general public is largely unaware of the significant association between alcohol and violence. News reports in the media downplay or fail to note the association of alcohol and violence. Only 1.4% of television news reports mention an association with alcohol when reporting homicide (3). This starkly contrasts with public health data reflecting that half of victims and over half of offenders were under the influence at the time a crime took place. Television series may influence the populations' attitudes including conception of connection between crime and substance use. Two Columbia Broadcasting System shows, CSI: Crime Scene Investigation and CSI: Miami, ranked in the top ten most-viewed programs in the US during the 2003–2006 seasons and reached over 43 million viewers annually during this time period, a number only amplified by consideration of the extensive syndication of these programs (4). The American drama follows Crime Scene Analysts as they use physical evidence to solve homicides in the cities of Las Vegas, Nevada and Miami, Florida respectively. Further, CSI and CSI: Miami achieve award-winning international viewership, earning the International Television Audience Award for the highest worldwide ratings four times in the 5-year life of the award. A definition of the representative nature of the dramatized crimes present in these shows may bring us a better understanding of the presentation of the association of alcohol and homicide in TV content. We compared homicides portrayed in these 'police procedurals' with existing epidemiologic data and data from the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) National Violent Death Reporting System (NVDRS). By this we were able to evaluate the portrayal of the association between alcohol and violence in CSI and CSI: Miami and to assess how representative the deaths on CSI and CSI: Miami were in relation to the larger dataset available from the CDC. Three hundred and one deaths were recorded throughout the 117 episodes evaluated. Of the murders, 189 (62.8%) were males and 112 (37.2%) were females. Victims were largely Caucasian, totaling 234 (77.7%) of murders, followed by those of Hispanic descent, 32 (10.6%), and African Americans with 24 (8%). Forty-six (15.3%) victims were shown using alcohol during or immediately prior to their death. Males were the offenders in 234 (77.7%) murders and females in 65 (21.6%), while two murders were attributed to a mixed-sex team. In these programs, similar to victims, offenders were largely Caucasian; 246 (81.7%) of the 301 murders were attributed to a Caucasian perpetrator; only 29 (9.6%) of the homicides were committed by Hispanics and 22 (7.3%) by African Americans. Individuals of Asian decent committed the remaining 4 (1.3%). Only 11 (3.7%) of offenders in these 301 depicted homicides where shown using alcohol prior to or during their crime. The murder method varied widely. In the homicides depicted, 36.2% or 109 victims were killed using firearms, followed closely by murder with a sharp instrument at 18.3% (55/301), and poisoning at 10% (30/301). Most murders (33.6%/101 of 301) took place in a house or condominium, with other locations including natural areas, such as a park or wooded location at 8.6% (26/301), a hotel or motel at 7.6% (23/301). Of the homicides depicted in CSI and CSI: Miami, 156 of the 301 victims, or 51.8%, were killed by strangers. The second most common victim-offender relationship seen on CSI and CSI: Miami was death at the hands of an acquaintance, with 100 of the 301 (or 33.2%). Arguments preceded 99 (32.9%) of the deaths, while sexual assault occurred in only 12 (4%) of the murders. Victims of homicide depicted on CSI programs were significantly less likely than victims listed in the CDC's NVDRS data to be under the influence of alcohol at the time of the crime (P < 0.0001). Caucasians were more likely to be homicide victims (P < 0.0001) and African Americans were significantly less likely to be portrayed as victims on CSI and CSI: Miami when compared with national data (P < 0.0001). Homicides on the two series were more likely to be committed by strangers (P < 0.0001) and less likely to be committed by intimate partner (P < 0.0001). CSI and CSI: Miami demonstrated a greater percentage of Caucasian deaths and a greater percentage of interracial violence, for example, Caucasian on African American violence, than did data from the NVDRS and FBI. CSI and CSI: Miami are popular dramatic series and are not designed nor meant to accurately represent national homicide statistics. While we hypothesized episodes would not illustrate an association between alcohol and homicide consistent with CDC data, nor be representative of other NVDRS data, we were surprised by the remarkable lack of association. Published data show that 60% of offenders have used alcohol prior to committing their crime. On CSI and CSI: Miami, only 3.7% were associated with the substance. The assertion that the public believes homicides on popular dramatic series are representative of real crime and death in the US is undoubtedly foolhardy; however, as Henry Mencken asserted, 'No one ever went broke underestimating the intelligence of the American public'. There are multiple examples of how TV dramatic series have influenced public health beliefs. The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation are increasingly using strategically placed messages in television programs to communicate to the American public. In a very recent example, the use of surgical checklists to improve patient safety was dramatically depicted on the medical drama about an Emergency Room, ER, created by Michael Crichton and aired by the National Broadcasting Company between the years of 1994 and 2009. Further, knowledge of HIV transmission between a mother and her infant quadrupled among viewers of Gray's Anatomy when the Kaiser Family Foundation worked with writers to embed health messages in the show. Accurate media messages can influence societal beliefs about alcohol. A 2012 study by Slater et al. (5) found that describing alcohol in news stories resulted in increased support for alcohol-control law enforcement. News reports of violence mention alcohol in 1.4% of their stories, when in truth public health data implicate alcohol in over half of homicides. Not only did the primary associations of alcohol use and violence differ dramatically in our study (3.7% of offenders on CSI vs. 60% nationally), but also the baseline demographics of violence were also widely disparate from the epidemiologic data. First, perpetrators of actual violence are far more likely to know their victim. Violent acts at the hands of a stranger are a less frequent event; occurring in 22.5% of homicides, according to the NVDRS data. For comparison, the police procedurals demonstrated this occurring in over half of the murders portrayed, at 51.8%. We theorized victim race on the television shows might be linked to viewership. Survey results from 2006 show that Caucasian households tuned into CSI more than did African American households, while the converse was true of CSI: Miami. However, victims on both CSI and CSI: Miami were significantly more likely to be Caucasian. In addition, the crimes represented a higher percentage of interracial violence, particularly when considering that Caucasians were the overwhelming majority of both victims and offenders, at 78% and 82%, respectively. An age difference also existed between the police procedurals reviewed and national statistics. The most frequent victim age group in CSI and CSI: Miami was 30–35, however; according to CDC data, the greatest number of violent deaths in the US occurred between the ages of 20–25. This 20- to 25-year-old group is the highest alcohol consumption age group. Our research was only possible based on now having an accurate comparator group for violence in the United States through the National Violent Death Reporting System. This type of data would not have been available to writers or researchers to influence media messages. As we noted earlier, television dramas are not meant to accurately portray the demographics of violence. Critically, individual shows also target audiences based on a variety of factors including age and income. However, with millions of Americans tuning into popular media programming such as CSI and CSI: Miami, we believe an opportunity does exist to increase awareness of alcohol-associated violence utilizing public service messages or storylines which more regularly, and accurately, display groups at risk based on substance-use behavior, age, race, and relationships. These messages could potentially portray violence prevention programs and substance abuse treatment positive impacts. Finally, increasing television viewer's understanding of the role of substance use in violent crimes and the possibility of violence prevention may result in enhanced public support for substance abuse prevention and treatment programs. Further data, tables, and figures can be obtained from the authors at [email protected].