Raising the Bar: preventing aggression in and around bars, pubs and clubs - New Publication

By Kathryn Graham & Ross Homel
Reviewed by Audrey Lewis, Chair of Licensing Committee, Westminster City Council

How many readers of this publication are responsible for managing large pubs, bars or nightclubs, I wonder? Not many perhaps, which would be a pity so far as their getting to hear about “Raising the Bar” is concerned. This is a detailed, thorough, academic study of the attempts that have been made to reduce alcohol-related violence in or just outside bars and nightclubs. Just that. No wonder as to how the people found themselves to be in those bars, the worst for drink.

The world explored is almost entirely English speaking. Australia predominates, reflecting the nationality of one of the authors; the other author being Canadian, there is much examination of attempts there to examine the causes of the violence there and in the US.

There are reports carried out of the work reported by British authors, particularly Philip Hadfield. A few references to Iceland and Sweden. My reaction is not that the authors have done a sloppy job in being so restrictive in their coverage but that it accurately represents the parts of the world where you might expect to see alcohol-related violence around bars. I am not suggesting that there isn’t excessive drinking in Russia and North Germany and perhaps Holland but I can’t recall hearing it being associated much with violence.

The Metropolitan Police kindly asked me to meet one of the authors two years ago and I mentioned to him, over dinner at Scotland Yard, the study done by Hall and Winlow, ‘Violent Nights’ 2006, which tried to understand why alcohol is so associated with violence in this country. No reference is made to it in this but I kept thinking back to ‘Violent Nights’ as I read ‘Raising the Bar’.

Why is it that there is so strong an association with violence and alcohol in some countries? Hall and Winlow’s thesis was that a section of English people choose to establish their role in society by the way in which they handle themselves in these licensed
premises – these were sought out arenas, selected with the expectation of an opportunity to pick a fight with a stranger. It seems generally accepted that the first result of drinking alcohol is a lessening of inhibition. Why does that lead to animated conversation and laughter in so many countries and to mindless violence among certain English speaking (on the whole) men?

Raising the Bar can be thoroughly recommended to anyone responsible for stopping violence in a particular place. e.g.: Don’t give the opportunity for people to bump into people or furniture, train not only the door staff but all the other staff - servers, security, shot dispensing girls and DJs to create an ordered environment in which people do not get excessively drunk and in which good-order obviously reigns. Know how to get rid of the people who are not prepared to accept this.

But what happens when they get outside? What, indeed, would happen if every alcohol-led establishment was closed? (There is an interesting question posed here about the closing of skid row types of bars and pubs where getting drunk was generally accepted. Did their patrons stop drinking when the premises got shut down or did they, as both I and the authors believe, become the street-drinkers who now dominate so much of the expressed concern of people living in crowded cities. I am inclined to agree that they were safer and less trouble in their original environment.)

In my work as Licensing Chairman in an inner city, ‘Raising the Bar’ gives me the confidence to insist that bars and clubs must find ways to deter violence as there are detailed accounts of what has proved successful. Of course, I know I’m really just saying ‘don’t come to Westminster if you want to behave like that’. However, I am also currently involved in helping the City develop its second edition of its Alcohol Strategy, working across partnership with a wide set of agencies, particularly the social services and the Primary Care Trust. Does ‘Raising the Bar’ help me to do that? Well, I’m grateful for its confirmation that relying on spotting who is getting drunk in large premises is so incredibly difficult, particularly in areas like my own where residents are outnumbered four to one, that it’s hardly worth attempting. So much of popular expectation is built round models based on the Bull and the Vic. The reality is dark, very noisy places where you can’t speak to your friends and you have to keep drinking because there’s nowhere to put your glass down.

The book didn’t mention smoking. The smoking ban, together with job losses and the cheap price of supermarket alcohol fuel reports of diminishing attendance in clubs and pubs and may contribute to a lessening of nuisance for city residents. I can only hope that they won’t lead to a transfer of alcoholrelated violence and the establishment of macho values being even more common in people’s homes. Just think of the extra extent by which children would be exposed…..

Raising the Bar
Preventing aggression in and around bars, pubs and clubs

Kathryn Graham (Centre for addiction and Mental Health,
Ontario Ross Homel (Griffith University)

Willan Publishing – Crime Science Series
ISBN-10: 1-843923-18-1
ISBN-13: 978-1-84392-318-3
Published September 2008