ALCOHOL AND VIOLENT DEATH

Abstract

In 1941 Gonzales and Gettler¹ reported a study on alcohol and the pedestrian in traffic accidents in New York City. They disclosed that 30.7 per cent of the pedestrians killed in traffic accidents were under the influence of alcohol. Gonzales, Vance and Helpern² have stated that alcohol was a contributory or responsible factor in approximately 40 per cent of all violent deaths that came under their jurisdiction in the Medical Examiner's office of New York City. Since then the problem of alcohol in relation to violent death has intensified. Despite this, many observers have tended to underestimate the significance of these previously mentioned findings because it has been claimed that the cases were not consecutive in most of these studies or that the cases were drawn from areas not typical of the county or population as a whole. Although it has been indicated that alcohol is a contributory