NCJ Number
235829
Date Published
January 2011
Length
16 pages
Annotation
This study estimated the proportion of assaults that occurred on or around licensed premises in the Sydney Local Government Area (Australia), determined whether assaults were more likely to happen around licensed premises than elsewhere, and estimated the effect of additional alcohol outlets (outlet density) on the incidence of assault.
Abstract
The study found that assaults were highly concentrated around premises licensed to sell alcoholic beverages. Just over half of the assaults recorded by police in the Sydney central business district occurred within 50 meters of a liquor outlet. Only 3 percent of the Sydney Local Government Area (LGA) is within 20 meters of a liquor outlet; still, 37 percent of assaults in the Sydney LGA occurred within this limited space. The results suggest that each additional alcoholic-beverage outlet per hectare in the Sydney LGA will result, on average, in 4.5 additional assaults per year. The study concludes that limiting the density of alcohol outlets may help limit the incidence of assault. The study identified clusters of businesses licensed to sell alcoholic beverages in the Sydney LGA. The proportion of assaults recorded by police within 20, 50, 100, and 200 meters of these licensed premises was calculated and compared with the proportion of land area covered by the measured areas around licensed premises. The incidence of recorded assaults as a function of increasing counts of alcohol outlets was also examined. Future research could consider the different business hours between licensed and other commercial premises. The higher frequency of assault incidents at night could mean that the differences between assault densities around licensed and commercial premises is even greater than the current results indicate. 5 tables, 4 figures, and 40 references