http://my.excite.com/news/r/980405/17/news-crime
 
URL for Reuters story (via Excite channel)
:
                          Updated 5:06 PM ET April 5, 1998
>
> Alcohol Factor in 40% of U.S. Violent Crime           More Top Stories
> WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Alcohol abuse is a factor     Study Ties Alcohol,
> in nearly 40 percent of violent crime in the         Crime
> United States, despite declines in alcohol           Study Backs Breast
> consumption and other offenses usually tied to       Cancer Drug
> drinking, the U.S. Justice Department said
> Sunday.                                              Clinton: Dismissal
>                                                      Good for US
> In the first Justice Department survey that          Pope Observes Palm
> combined wide-ranging statistics on crime and        Sunday
> alcohol use, agency researchers estimated that
> nearly four in 10 violent felonies, approximately    Actors, Producers
> three million annually, were committed by someone    Reach Accord
> who had been drinking.                               Probe into Atlanta
>                                                      Crash Begins
> Virtually all of the offenders were men and most     Mississippi River
> of them had been drunk when they committed the       Traffic Fine
> crime. Some were almost three times over
> allowable blood-alcohol limits and were described    US Nuclear Pioneers
> as heavy drinkers.                                   Look Back
>                                                      'Titanic' Toppled at
> The study tracked murders, rapes, sex assaults,      Box Office
> robberies and assaults.                              Milli Vanilli Singer
>                                                      Dead
> "Forty percent is a very significant factor,"
> said Lawrence Greenfeld, a Justice Department
> statistician who wrote the report. "We now have a    Earlier Headlines
> mark that we can use for comparison in future        House Campaign Probe
> years."                                              Continues
>                                                      Spring Break for US
> Greenfeld's team compiled several years of law       Congress
> enforcement data with thousands of interviews of
> victims and offenders to draw a representative       High demand for fake
> sampling of the link between violent crime and       Calif. licenses
> alcohol abuse.                                       Chi. couple slain for
>                                                      baby
> All of the offenders surveyed were convicted of      El Pasoans turn out
> their crimes and were interviewed while behind       for Hispanic boxer
> bars or on probation. All of the offenders and
> victims interviewed for the study were chosen        Death toll 5 in
> separately at random.                                midair crash
>
> Greenfeld said roughly 40 percent of both groups     [Reuters]
> said alcohol was a factor in their cases.            ) 1997 Reuters
>                                                      Limited. All rights
> The overwhelming majority of the offenders were      reserved.
> men, but the study did not track the gender of       Republication and
> victims. Statistics show, however, that most         redissemination of the
> victims of violent crime are men. The study did      contents of this
> show that three of four spousal abuse crimes         screen are expressly
> involved alcohol and most victims in those cases     prohibited without
> are women.                                           Reuters prior written
>                                                      consent. Contact
> The results come at a time when statistics           Reuters
> indicate alcohol consumption rates and offenses
> usually associated with alcohol use are going
> down in the United States.
>
> The study found more than 80 percent of Americans
> aged 12 and up say they have used alcohol at
> least once. But national estimates show the
> annual consumption of alcohol has declined 10
> percent since 1990 from 40 gallons per person to
> 36 gallons. If measuring beer, 36 gallons per
> year equals roughly one 12-ounce glass per day.
>
> The study showed that nationally the arrest rate
> for driving under the influence of alcohol has
> fallen by 24 percent since 1990, and the number
> of highway deaths blamed on alcohol has dropped
> by 29 percent over the past decade.