Alcohol
Alcohol Related Assault: Findings from the British Crime Survey
| This document is published for archival/historical purposes. It will not be updated. |
The British Crime Survey presents a unique opportunity to examine the extent of alcohol related violence in England and Wales. Providing an overview of alcohol related violence between 1995 and 1999, the survey identifies key risk factors associated with being an alcohol related assault victim.
Title: Alcohol Related Assault: Findings from the British Crime Survey
Author: Home Office Research Development Statistics
Series: On-line report 35/03
Number of pages: 37
Date Published: September 2003
Alcohol related violence is classed as assaults and muggings in which the victim judged the offender to be under the 'influence of alcohol'. The 2000 BCS estimated there were around 1.2 million incidents of alcohol related violence in 1999. Only a small proportion of the population, 2%, were victim of such incidents in 1999.
Policy types most effective in preventing this disorder are those targeting the environmental aspect conducive to violence. The BCS confirms further that alcohol related assaults between strangers, and acquaintances, happens within the night-time economy. Around half of the assaults took place in or around pubs and clubs, with 70% taking place at weekend evenings. Most other incidents took place in public places, such as entertainment facilities or public transport.
Corresponding to these incidents:
more than half of incidents left the victim with some form of injury
more than one fifth of incidents involved some form of weapon, most noteably a glass or bottle
more than half of incidents were not reported to the police.
Alcohol Action Plan
The Government plans to map the overall problem at a national level. The BCS report findings provide basis for Crime and Disorder Reduction Partnership comparison, and advances for Home Office developement. Introduced in 2000, the Alcohol Action Plan aimed to tackle alcohol-related crime, disorder and nuisance. The three key objectives of the plan were to:
reduce problems from under age drinking
reduce public drunkenness and associated criminal and disorderly behaviour
prevent alcohol related violence.
Estimated number of incidents of alcohol-related violence in 1999
The BCS counts the number of alcohol related violence incidents experienced by those interviewed. The count is converted into an incident rate, and multiplied by the adult population of England and Wales to provide a 90 per cent true figure total estimate.
Alcohol-related | Best estimate | Lowest estimate | Highest estimate |
Stranger assault | 450,000 | 359,000 | 541,000 |
Acquaintance assault | 410,000 | 326,000 | 495,000 |
Domestic assault | 320,000 | 219,000 | 421,000 |
Mugging | 66,000 | 34,000 | 98,000 |
All violence | 1,246,000 | 1,080,000 | 1,412,000 |
The survey estimated 297 alcohol-related incidents per 10,000 adults in 1999, giving an incident total of 1,246,000.
Estimated number of victims of alcohol-related violence in 1999
The total number of victims will always be lower than the number of incidents, because an individual may be victimised more than once in a year. Overall, less than two per cent of adults had been victim of an alcohol-related violent incident in 1999. While the risk of being a violence victim is relatively low, this still results in an estimated total of 795,000 victims in 1999.
Alcohol-related | Best estimate | Lowest estimate | Highest estimate |
Stranger assault | 333,000 | 279,000 | 387,000 |
Acquaintance assault | 305,000 | 253,000 | 356,000 |
Domestic assault | 135,000 | 101,000 | 169,000 |
Mugging | 49,000 | 28,000 | 70,000 |
All violence | 795,000 | 712,000 | 878,000 |
The Risks of Alcohol-Related Assault
Socio-demographic and lifestyle issues affect alcohol related crime rates. With some groups more at risk than others, the following factors were consistently associated with heightened risk exposure:
Gender
Stranger and acquaintance assault was significantly higher among men than women, with the highest risk being 16-29 year old males. There were an estimated 188 incidents of alcohol-related stranger assault and 130 incidents of acquaintance assault per 10,000 men in 1999. The respective figures for women were 32 per 10,000 and 68 per 10,000.
Age
There was a pattern of falling victimisation rates with age in both genders, with age strongly related. Overall, rates were highest among 16-19 year-olds, with around 440 incidents of both stranger and acquaintance alcohol-related assault per 10,000 adults.
Family status
Rates of alcohol-related victimisation were highest among adults who were single, followed by those cohabiting with a partner. Rates were also higher among those who did not live with children under the age of 16.
Employment status
Adults who were classified as unemployed had far higher rates of alcohol-related assault than those in employment/self-employed.
Drinking patterns
Personal drinking patterns are strongly associated with the risk of becoming an alcohol-related assault victim. Individuals drinking three or four days a week had the highest rates of victimisation, with this consumption incorporating the culture of visiting pubs and night clubs regularly.
Area characteristics
The incident rate of alcohol-related stranger and acquaintance assault is lowest among those living rural areas. Highest is among those is in inner-city areas, closely followed by those in urban areas.
Offender characteristics
Number of offenders
Almost half of alcohol-related assaults between strangers involved more than one offender, as did 38 per cent of incidents between acquaintances. For both stranger and acquaintance incidents, around a fifth involved four or more offenders.
Sex of offenders
The vast majority of alcohol-related assaults involved male offenders only, with a higher ratio for incidents between strangers. Ninety per cent of stranger incidents were perpetrated by men, five per cent by women and five per cent by a mixed sex group.
Age of offenders
Results show the majority (60%) of alcohol-related stranger incidents were perpetrated by those aged 16 to 24. In contrast, the majority (55%) of alcohol-related acquaintance incidents were perpetrated by someone aged 25 or older.
Type of force used in incidents
The most common type of force used in alcohol-related assaults was punching or slapping. Two-thirds of stranger incidents involved punching or slapping, as did just over a half of acquaintance incidents. Grabbing and pushing was also relatively common, followed by kicking. In a fifth of incidents the perpetrator had a weapon which they threatened to use, most commonly a drinking glass or a bottle.
Conclusion
The findings reported will help feed the evidence base on which to build the prevention of alcohol-related crime policies and initiatives. Alcohol is a definitive factor that needs to be considered in tackling the problem of domestic violence. In reference to local Crime and Disorder Reduction Partnerships tackling the problem of alcohol-related assault, the report strongly identified alcohol related disorder as a priority in their locality, through problem solving and initiative prevention.
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Last update: Thursday, August 28, 2008