New research has confirmed the link between alcohol and other drugs and domestic violence, showing heavy binge drinking doubles the risk of family or intimate partner violence. Lead researcher Professor Peter Miller, from Deakin’s School of Psychology, said alcohol related incidents were also more severe, and much more likely to involve physical violence, and result in physical, psychological, or emotional injury, than those where no alcohol was involved “Heavy drinking was also found to be associated with increased levels of coercive controlling behaviour, which includes emotional, psychological, and physical abuse of a partner,” Professor Miller said. |
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| While drug use is only involved in a small minority of cases, it appears to be associated with increased likelihood of experiencing family or domestic violence. Overall, 10.5% of incidents were illicit drug-related. Illicit drug users were 2.8 times likely than non-users to report recent violence. Drug-related intimate partner violence incidents were also more severe. The study, Alcohol/Drug-Involved Family Violence in Australia (ADIVA), was completed by researchers from Deakin’s School of Psychology and funded by the National Drug Law Enforcement Fund.You can read download the report here and there is an article discussing the implications of the findings here.
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