Hot spots for violence : the environment of pubs and clubs

Violence has become a matter of major public concern in Australia in recent years. Two separate massacres in Melbourne in 1987 and one in Sydney in 1991— each by a lone gunman— horrified the nation and reinforced the view of many that Australia is becoming a more violent and lawless country. Anecdotal evidence and systematic survey data both confirm that fear of random, unprovoked violence from strangers now has a major effect on the lives of many ordinary Australians (van Dijk, Mayhew & Killias 1991). However, criminological research (see Australia 1990) suggests that most acts of interpersonal violence are not the result of random attacks by madmen on complete strangers, but involve ordinary people as both attackers and victims who frequently know each other and who, for one reason or another, come into conflict in the home, street, workplace, or place of recreation. Indeed, even a quick perusal of the statistics on homicides and assaults leads one to a conclusion which may be banal but is of fundamental importance: the places in which most acts of interpersonal violence occur, and the times at which they occur, mirror, at least roughly, the rhythms and routines of daily life (see Robb 1988). A substantial number of homicides involve intimates within the family home because those are the circumstances in which many people spend much of their lives. A higher proportion of non-fatal assaults than of homicides take place outside the home and involve strangers, but these events are also highly patterned, being more common late at night and on weekends, when social life and interaction is at its most intense