Source:Orange County Registernews,page 10
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Headline:Study finds killings increase in homes with drug abuse

Crime:Those living with abusers or alcoholics are more likely to be
murdered than those in drugfree environments.

By CHRISTOPHER S.WRENThe New York Times

People who do not use illegal drugs but live in households where such drugs
are used are 11 times as likely to be killed as those living in drugfree
homes,according to a study reported today in the Journal of the American
Medical Association.

Killings were also 70 percent more likely among nondrinkers in households
where alcoholism exist, according to the study, which examined the effect
of substance abuse on homicides and suicides in three counties encompassing
Seattle, Memphis and Cleveland.

"Our concept of the individual at risk for violent death should be
broadened to include not only the substance abuser, but also those who may
be at risk because of the presence of others within the household who are
substance abusers," the researchers said.

The study, by researchers at the University of Washington, the University
of Tenneassee, Case Western Reserve University and Emory University, found
that people who mix alcohol with drugs were 16.6 times more at risk for
suicide for homicide than those who abuse neither.

Not only were alcoholism and drug abuse associated with more frequent
suicide, the researchers reported, but homicides also increased among
people who did not consume drugs or alcohol but lived with others who did.

Dr. Frederick P. Rivara, the lead researcher, said the study underscored
the need to confront the abuse of alcohol and drugs on medical care.
"Physicians don't usually screen for substance abuse, and substance abuse
has many implications, including violence," Revara said in a telephone
interview from Seattle.

Rivara said the study documented that alcohol and drug abusers posed a risk
not just to themselves but to others in their household.

Alcohol is generally recognized as a factor in killings and suicides. The
researchers alluded to previous studies showing that 40 percent to 70
percent of homicide victims were found during autopsies to have had alcohol
in their blood.

But the potentially fatal impact of chronic substance abuse on other
household members was often overlooked, the researchers said.

They studied reports by medical examiners on 438 suicides and 388 homicides
occurring at homes in Shelby County, Tenn.; King County, Wash., and
Cuyahoga County, Ohio, during a threeto fiveyear period beginning in
August 1987. The victims' proximity to alcohol or drugs was compared with
that of a control group of residents of the same or similar neighborhoods.

Alcohol abuse increased the risk of suicide threefold, whether or not the
subject lived alone, the study said, but "nondrinking individuals who lived
with others who drank were not at increased risk of suicide."

The study said,"Alcohol impairs judgement,possibly causing individuals to
place themselves in situations at high risk of violence."

But the use of illegal drugs by those younger than 50, the study found,was
associated with a higher incidence of sucide both among drug users and
those who lived with them. Drug use was too infrequent to be measured in
those older than 50.

The link between violence and drug use,the researchers suggested,might
result from "drugseeking activities,such as interaction with drug dealers
and theft to obtain resources for drug purchase."

The study reported that drug abuse in a home increased a woman's risk of
being killed by a spouse,lover or close relative by 28 times.