Deadly cost of hitting the booze

New research has given grim evidence of the lethal power of alcohol. It shows that almost half of Australia's murders followed drinking bouts, and that many were likely to involve knifings or brutal beatings.

The Australian Institute of Criminology paper also shows that drunks are more likely to kill friends or strangers than partners, and that women are more likely to murder husbands or boyfriends under the influence of alcohol than vice versa.

And, adding to the already-appalling list of Aboriginal woes, researchers Jack Dearden and Jason Pyne found that the overwhelming majority of indigenous killings involved alcohol.

They said 76 per cent of indigenous murders were drink-related, compared with 40 per cent for other Australian killings.

The paper's findings, based on almost 1600 homicides over six years, followed earlier research revealing the scale of violence surrounding alcohol consumption.

About 775,000 people aged 14 years or older are physically abused every year by a drunk, and one in four Australians are verbally abused or fear for their safety.

About half the people detained by police in 2007 had been drinking in the 48 hours before their arrest, one in every three violent prisoners considered themselves alcoholics, and just under half were drunk at the time of their most serious offence.

Researchers cited in the paper believed many suffered from "alcohol myopia", in which booze narrowed the focus to a person's immediate situation, with scant regard for the consequences of their actions.

"This in turn creates a greater potential for violence," the paper said.

Further research on the effect of alcohol on the brain suggested drinking made it harder to appreciate other people's perspectives and to solve problems, and made drinkers more impulsive, emotional and introspective.

But the paper said not everyone who drank too much was a threat. Booze might increase the chance of violence among those with violent predispositions, but most people who drank did not lash out.

About 60 per cent of booze-related homicides occurred when both killer and victim had been drinking, with the greatest chance of becoming victim to a drunken murder falling on weekends between 6pm and 6am at recreation venues, on the street, or in other open areas.

Men were more likely to be killed by drunks than women, and the unemployed were almost twice as likely to die from alcohol-induced murder as those with a job.

Friends and strangers stood a significantly higher chance of being killed by a drunk than an intimate partner, and women were more likely to murder under the influence than men.

The paper said that homicides involving a male killing an intimate female victim - such as a husband killing a wife - were significantly less likely to have involved alcohol than those in which a woman murdered a man.