U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government, Department of Justice.

NCJRS Virtual Library

The Virtual Library houses over 235,000 criminal justice resources, including all known OJP works.
Click here to search the NCJRS Virtual Library

Measuring Violence in and Around Licensed Premises: The Need for a Better Evidence Base

NCJ Number
227789
Journal
Crime Prevention and Community Safety Volume: 11 Issue: 3 Dated: July 2009 Pages: 171-188
Author(s)
Andrew Newton; Alex Hirschfield
Date Published
July 2009
Length
18 pages
Annotation
Using analysis techniques and findings from an evaluation of Great Britain's Licensing Act 2003, which introduced the possibility of applying for 24-hour licensing permits for liquor sales, this article reflects on difficulties in collecting the evidence necessary to conduct an evaluation of the impact of the number of liquor-selling hours available for on-premise consumption and the rate of alcohol consumption, along with the harms caused by alcohol-influenced behaviors.
Abstract
By analyzing two datasets - police-recorded violence against the person (VAP) and information on the location of licensed liquor-serving premise locations and their opening hours - this study demonstrates some of the difficulties presented to analysts in attempting to measure the extent of alcohol-related violence in the night-time economies (NTEs) of England and Wales. It also highlights the importance of place (individual high-risk premises and areas with concentrations of licensed premises); the importance of time (both time of day and day of the week); and the value of local contextual knowledge (e.g., the difference between granted and actual used licensed trading hours) in measuring and interpreting change in the number of liquor-selling hours. In addition, there is a range of additional information on licensing that is not currently collated consistently, including capacity and licensing conditions. These factors are critical in making informed decisions for the management of the NTE and areas with licensed premises. A number of supplementary data and intelligence sources are suggested for this effort, including information from the National Health System, particularly accident and emergency cases at hospital; information from the ambulance service; and data from the British Transport Police. 4 tables and 31 references