Acuteness and chronicity of alcohol abuse were related to severity, but not to frequency of violence. Acute alcohol abusers appeared to suffer from more severe central nervous impairment than did nonabusers. No overall differences were found between early-onset and late-onset abusers. The absence of adverse central nervous system consequences of chronic alcohol abuse may have been due to the possibility of a greater span of abstinence among chronic abusers between the time of alcohol use and the electroencephalographic recording than that among acute abusers. Study findings do not appear inconsistent with the hypothesis that the central nervous system is an intervening variable in the alcohol abuse/violence link. 3 tables and 42 references (Author abstract modified)