Introduction

Alcohol related crime and disorder has a major impact on the quality of life of many people.

It is associated with a wide range of offences ranging from minor public order offences, which are anti-social by nature, through traffic offences, minor assaults, serious assaults to murder.

The Government is determined to assist crime and disorder reduction partnerships in tackling these alcohol-related problems by giving the police and local authorities the support and powers required.

In launching the Government's Action Plan in August 2000, Home Office Minister Charles Clarke said: "Public drunkenness can give rise to serious problems of disorderly conduct, nuisance, criminal damage and alcohol-related assaults, particularly in the proximity of licensed premises at closing time. In addition, it can increase fear of crime and so reduce the quality of life for many people. This is clearly unacceptable."

Alcohol-related crime featured prominently in over 70% of Crime and Disorder Strategies. For many strategies, the focus was on young people, either in attempting to reduce the availability of alcohol to young people, or in the delivery of alcohol-related public health messages through schools.

This toolkit is one of a series of toolkits designed to help all those involved in crime reduction to work as effectively as possible. The toolkit brings together information on the latest developments, research findings and promising approaches to reducing crime and disorder problems associated with alcohol. It includes tools for identifying problems, developing responses and monitoring progress and highlights practical measures to make communities safer.

The effectiveness of the toolkits relies on your help. We very much welcome contributions and advice on how to improve their content and approach. There are details on how you can help at ‘ Innovation