NCJ Number
136496
Date Published
1989
Length
116 pages
Annotation
A 1988 survey of England and Wales under the auspices of the Association of Chief Police Officers (ACPO) established that the police were experiencing problems in policing disorder in nonmetropolitan areas, especially disorder that stemmed from alcohol consumption. This current report presents results from a more detailed study of the phenomena documented in the ACPO report.
Abstract
So as to describe the nature of incidents of disorder or violence, three paired sites were selected for further study; one of each pair was a major "trouble site" in the ACPO data; the other was a near match in sociodemographic variables. Contrary to expectation, disorder was as prevalent in some of the "control" sites as in the trouble sites. The study found that disorder was not so much in licensed liquor outlets themselves as on the streets after persons, mostly youth, had consumed liquor in a pub. Young people leave pubs en masse at the same hour and cluster at fast-food outlets or other places. Weekend drinking was found to be a routine social habit among the young. Suggestions for addressing the problem focus on the reduction in alcohol consumption by the young, staggered closing hours for pubs, and identity cards and the prevention of under-age drinking. 6 appendixes with detailed data and 9 references