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Violence and crime

On this page

  • Facts and stats
  • Briefings
  • Reports
  • Blogs
  • Podcasts
  • Videos

Alcohol is seen as one of the major causes of crime in urban Britain today. It is associated with a million crimes in the UK every year.

Alcohol-related crime makes up a substantial portion of violent offences across the UK in particular (39% in England and Wales in 2017/18, 54% in Scotland in 2014/15, and 40% in Northern Ireland in 2016/17), and is estimated to cost between 1.3 and 2.7% of the UK annual GDP (£21-£52 billion), according to a 2016 Public Health England report.

Alcohol also places a significant burden on the emergency services – three quarters of police and half of ambulance respondents have been injured in alcohol-related incidents – while research has also highlighted the role of alcohol in domestic violence, sexual assault, child abuse, and violent crime including murder.

A number of drivers of alcohol-related crime identified include price, the density and types of premises, and extended drinking hours. Policies aiming to address these drivers exist at both a national and local level in the UK. These range from licensing regulations to tough penalties for criminal behaviour linked to alcohol. Research suggests Minimum Unit Pricing also presents an effective policy option.

Facts and stats

  • In 2019/20, 42% of all violent crimes occurred where the victim believed the offender(s) to be under the influence of alcohol (ONS, 2020)
  • Alcohol-related violence victimisation is disproportionately clustered in the lowest socioeconomic groups. Lower socioeconomic groups are also more likely to experience high frequency alcohol-related anti-social behaviour. (Bryant, L. 2020)

How much crime is alcohol-related in England and Wales? by The Institute of Alcohol Studies

  • The proportion of violent crimes involving offenders under the influence of alcohol has fallen from just over 3 in 5 in 2008/09 to around 2 in 5 in 2019/20

How much crime is alcohol-related in Scotland? by The Institute of Alcohol Studies

  • Survey data is unavailable. However, police data suggests the following:
  • Between 2012/13 and 2021/22, around one in five crimes recorded by the police have been flagged with an alcohol motivation.
  • There were 23,046 of such offences in 2021/22
  • Sexual offences with an alcohol motivation represented 14.3% of all sexual offences in 2020/21
  • Around half of all violence with injury offences and two fifths of violence without injury offences have been given an alcohol motivation. (PSNI, 2022)
  • England and Wales: 13,000 Penalty Notices for Disorder (PND) were issued in relation to non-notifiable offences for the year ending September 2017, the majority of which related to drunk and disorderly behaviour. (ONS, 2018)
  • Scotland: Consuming alcohol in a public place was the third most commonly issued Anti-Social Behaviour Fixed Penalty Notice (ASBPN) in 2017/18, making up 1/5 of all notices given. (Scot Gov, 2019)
  • Northern Ireland: Data is not held for exactly how many PNDs issued are related to alcohol, although there is one offence referring specifically to alcohol related behaviour – ‘simple drunk’ – for which 41 PNDs were issued in 2016.
  • A survey examining the North West of England found that:
    • 43% of respondents felt annoyed by people vomiting or urinating in the street after drinking
    • 49.4% were kept awake by drunken noise
  • Over 1 in 10 perceive people being drunk or rowdy in their area to be a very or fairly big problem. (ONS, 2023)
  • Alcohol is the second most commonly identified major cause of crime in Northern Ireland

What are the public’s perceptions of alcohol-related crime in Northern Ireland? by The Institute of Alcohol Studies

Briefings

Alcohol-related crime reporting – what do we know?

Alcohol, the emergency services and the criminal justice system

Crime and disorder in the night time economy

Domestic abuse, sexual assault, and child abuse

Driving factors of alcohol-related crime

Reports

IAS response to consultation on Northern Ireland Domestic and Sexual Abuse Strategy

May 2023

Patterns in alcohol-related violence: exploring recent declines in alcohol-related violence in England and Wales

February 2023

IAS response to consultation on Late Night Levy Fees

February 2023

IAS response to consultation on the Redesign of the Crime Survey for England and Wales

August 2022

IAS Annual Report 2021/22

May 2022

IAS response to consultation on the refresh of the violence against women, domestic abuse and sexual violence National Strategy, Wales

February 2022

IAS response to consultation on new duties on local authorities to provide domestic abuse support in safe accommodation in England

July 2021

Violence Against Women and Girls Strategy Institute of Alcohol Studies Submission

February 2021

Joint Briefing on the Domestic Abuse Bill 2019-21

January 2021

Blogs

10285Isolating and Examining Off-Trade Availability and Violence

Isolating and Examining Off-Trade Availability and Violence

Dr Carly Lightowlers and Dr Lucy Bryant

18th September 2023

10120Can alcohol duties be used to reduce the rate of violence injury?

Can alcohol duties be used to reduce the rate of violence injury?

Professor Kent Matthews

20th June 2023

8848Patterns in alcohol-related violence: exploring recent declines in alcohol-related violence in England and Wales

Patterns in alcohol-related violence: exploring recent declines in alcohol-related violence in England and Wales

Lucy Bryant

27th February 2023

8648How does the Late Night Levy spur change in the night-time economy?

How does the Late Night Levy spur change in the night-time economy?

Dr Elizabeth McGill et al

20th October 2022

7932Alcohol and gender: Thinking beyond the binary

Alcohol and gender: Thinking beyond the binary

Dr Dean Connolly

15th February 2022

7836Sentencing people to sobriety and coerced alcohol abstinence

Sentencing people to sobriety and coerced alcohol abstinence

Dr Carly Lightowlers

11th January 2022

7718Has MUP in Scotland reduced alcohol-related crime in the first 21 months? Reflections on an evaluation

Has MUP in Scotland reduced alcohol-related crime in the first 21 months? Reflections on an evaluation

Dr Carly Lightowlers and Lucy Bryant

4th November 2021

7632What COVID-19 restrictions tell us about violence and how alcohol availability affects this

What COVID-19 restrictions tell us about violence and how alcohol availability affects this

Professor Jonathan Shepherd CBE

6th October 2021

Podcasts

The efficacy of ‘sobriety tagging’

We spoke to Dr Carly Lightowlers about the roll-out of so-called ‘sobriety tags’, why they are being rolled out, and […]

Dr Carly Lightowlers – University of Liverpool

November 2021

Alcohol-related violence and deprivation

Joining us is Dr Carly Lightowlers, who shares her research findings which suggest that those in the lowest socioeconomic groups […]

Dr Carly Lightowlers – University of Liverpool

March 2021

Alcohol and air travel

In this episode, actor Ally Murphy talks about the difficulties of dealing with the behaviour of intoxicated passengers in her […]

Ally Murphy – Former cabin service supervisor

August 2018

Videos

Alcohol-related violence, anti-social behaviour and deprivation – presentation

July 2021

Alcohol and inequalities in victimisation

May 2020

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