Homicide and the Night-time Economy: Report to the Criminology Research Council

Criminologists overwhelmingly acknowledge a strong relation between alcohol, drinking and a range of violent crimes including homicide. Less is known about the actual scenarios and patterns – in particular, whether or not the worst violent effects of drinking occur in private or in public settings such as expanding areas of night leisure. This study comprises a unique analysis of homicide producing new information about the prevalence, trends and locations of killings that are related to alcohol use and the ‘night-time economy’ (NTE). This was done with a file analysis of case records from two sample years (98/99 and 07/08) stored in the Australian National Homicide Monitoring Program database and a researcher check on the reliability of police classification of incidents as alcohol-related. The study compares the patterns and characteristics of 73 homicides with either a direct or indirect relation to commercial nightlife and gives examples of the typical scenarios of these incidents. There has been a recent major police, media and public concern about violence from intoxicated strangers occurring within night-time leisure areas across Australia. This study suggests that there is no evidence of a substantial concentration of homicide incidents in specific nightlife entertainment areas. Yet there is an ongoing occurrence of homicides that are both directly and indirectly related to this after dark sphere, with indirectly related incidents outweighing others. This affirms the need to persist with strategies limiting intoxication in night leisure and to explore further means of controlling the purchase and accessibility to alcohol in the general community