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Alcohol is often a factor in homicide, but do cultural factors influence the link between the two? Investigators correlated homicide rates with age-standardized per capita alcohol consumption by individuals aged 15 to 64 in two countries with high rates of violent death: Russia (dates, 1959–1998), where episodic heavy drinking of vodka is common, and the U.S. (1950–2004), where hazardous drinking is less common and beer is the most frequently consumed alcoholic beverage.
Although alcohol consumption and homicide rates were always higher in Russia than in the U.S., both rates initially increased similarly between countries. In the U.S, alcohol consumption began to decrease in the 1980s, whereas homicide rates decreased through the 1980s, incr…