Violence and the night-time economy: A multi-professional perspective. An introduction to the Special Issue

Internationally, a wealth of studies have demonstrated a link between the provision or alcohol and the occurrence of crime and disorder in the night-time economy (NTE), particularly in town and city centres (Olsson and Wikstrom, 1982; Rush et al ,1986; Edwards et al, 1994; Chikritzhs and Stockwell, 2002; Goodacre, 2005) However, the occurrence of “alcohol-related” crime and disorder is a complex multi-dimensional issue, as the consumption of alcohol is not inevitably associated with involvement in violence or anti-social behaviour, and can only be addressed through an understanding of a diverse range of factors. This is an area which has been widely researched, yet debate still exists as to how best to define and measure the extent of alcohol related violence and disorder, how to identify causal factors, and, moreover, how best to tackle the problem.