Sarah Browning, assistant professor of criminal justice, and Patricia Erickson, senior scientist at the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health in Toronto, have published an article titled “Neighborhood Disadvantage, Alcohol Use, and Violent Victimization.” The paper will appear in the October 2009 edition of Youth Violence and Juvenile Justice.

The study examined the relative importance of neighborhood, family and school effects on the relationship between alcohol use and violent victimization among Toronto area high school students.

According to the authors, two surprising findings emerged. First, contrary to expectations, youth residing in economically disadvantaged neighborhoods were less likely to experience violent victimization relative to their more advantaged counterparts. However, if youth in these disadvantaged contexts were alcohol users they were subject to a much higher risk of both minor and major victimization when compared to alcohol users in other neighborhoods.

The research has spurred requests for replications using Philadelphia and Montreal samples.