This is a repository copy of Intoxication and assault: an analysis of Crown Court sentencing practices in England and Wales.
Inequalities in alcohol-related health harms have been repeatedly identified. However, the socioeconomic distribution of alcohol-related violence (violence committed by a person under the influence of alcohol)–and of subtypes such as alcohol-related domestic violence–remains under-examined. To examine this, data are drawn from nationally representative victimisation survey, the Crime Survey for England and Wales, from years 2013/14 to 2017/18. Socioeconomic status specific incidence and prevalence rates for alcohol-related violence (including subtypes domestic, stranger, and acquaintance violence) were created. Binomial logistic regressions were performed to test whether the likelihood of experiencing these incidents was affected by socioeconomic status when controlling for a range of pre-established risk factors associated with violence victimisation. Findings generally show lower socioeconomic groups experience higher prevalence rates of alcohol-related violence overall, and higher incidence and prevalence rates for alcohol-related domestic and acquaintance violence. Binomial logistic regression results show that the likelihood of experiencing these types of violence is affected by a person’s socioeconomic status–even when other risk factors known to be associated with violence are held constant. Along with action to address environmental and economic drivers of socioeconomic inequality, provision of publicly funded domestic violence services should be improved, and alcohol pricing and availability interventions should be investigated for their potential to disproportionately benefit lower socioeconomic groups.
Despite media and political rhetoric to the contrary, there is persuasive evidence to suggest an association between deprivation and those involved in the English riots of 2011, which continues to be downplayed when developing responses to crime and crime prevention policy. This study explores empirical evidence from two major cities in the North West of England, which highlights an association between deprivation and rioting in both criminal charge and sentencing data allowing further exploration of some of these issues. The paper argues that to mask the rioting as ‘mindless criminality’ is to ignore wider social-structural inequalities and to silence important messages contained in the rioting behaviour from disenfranchised youth and communities about the inequalities they suffer.
It is well known that both deprivation and alcohol availability are associated with violent crime. However, less is known about whether the former moderates the latter. Pioneering the linkage of novel alcohol availability measures derived from consumer data with police data and an index of deprivation, we examine inequalities in violent crime across small-level geography (LSOAs) for the whole of England. Our findings confirmed a recent upward trend in recorded violent crime in England between 2011 and 2018 and substantial between-area variability in recorded violent crime, as well as an increase in violent crime inequality across LSOAs during the period of analysis. Violent crime was higher in areas with increased deprivation and alcohol availability, especially in the form of on-licensed premises. On-licence availability, in the form of pubs, bars and nightclubs, explained variability in recorded violent crime more so when compared with off-licence availability. A positive interaction effect between alcohol availability (in the form of on-licensed premises) and deprivation showed how deprivation amplified the impact of alcohol availability, with more deprived areas having a stronger impact of on-licence availability on violent crime. Deprivation is thus an important contextual factor when considering rates and the social ecology of violence. Our findings suggest a need to respond to the disproportionate impact of violence on areas with higher levels of deprivation and availability of on-licensed premises.
Alcohol consumption patterns such as binge drinking have routinely been associated with interpersonal assault amongst young people. Examining how drinking patterns are temporally associated with violent behavior during adolescence and young adulthood further develops an understanding of this relationship. This study employs data from the Offending Crime and Justice Survey in England and Wales, offering insight into young people's drinking and offending behavior. A cross-sectional model examines the extent to which binge drinking is associated with the likelihood of committing assault in the same year. An earlier measure of binge drinking (in the previous year) was subsequently used to examine the influence on later violent behavior. Evidence that the pattern of drinking is associated with violent offending, as well as a contemporaneous association between binge drinking and violence in the same year, supports the existing literature in the field and suggests that frequent acute intoxication is a temporally proximal risk factor for the increased propensity of committing interpersonal assault offenses. However, there is no evidence found in the current study to suggest that earlier measures of binge drinking frequency are associated with increased propensity for later violent offending. Furthermore, current findings do not suggest that the association between binge drinking and the propensity for violence is moderated by gender, thus suggesting interventions aimed at reducing violent offending ought to address binge drinking in both males and females.
Article:Pina Sanchez, J orcid.org/0000-0002-9416-6022, Lightowlers, C orcid.org/0000-0002-0608-8141 and Roberts, J (2017) Exploring the punitive surge: Crown Court sentencing practices before and after the 2011 English riots. Criminology and Criminal Justice, 17 (3). pp. 319-339. ISSN 1748-8958 https://doi.org/10.1177/1748895816671167 © 2016, the Author(s). This is an author produced version of a paper published in Criminology and Criminal Justice. Uploaded in accordance with the publisher's self-archiving policy.eprints@whiterose.ac.uk https://eprints.whiterose.ac.uk/ Reuse Unless indicated otherwise, fulltext items are protected by copyright with all rights reserved. The copyright exception in section 29 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 allows the making of a single copy solely for the purpose of non-commercial research or private study within the limits of fair dealing. The publisher or other rights-holder may allow further reproduction and re-use of this version -refer to the White Rose Research Online record for this item. Where records identify the publisher as the copyright holder, users can verify any specific terms of use on the publisher's website. TakedownIf you consider content in White Rose Research Online to be in breach of UK law, please notify us by emailing eprints@whiterose.ac.uk including the URL of the record and the reason for the withdrawal request. Exploring the KeywordsRiots, sentencing, guidelines, consistency, severity, burglary AbstractThe English summer riots of 2011 resulted in the criminal justice system having to process an unprecedented number of offenders in a short timeframe. This study explores sentencing practice in the wake of the riots using the 2011 Crown Court Sentencing Survey. A multilevel model was implemented to specify the probability of receiving a custodial sentence. This model allows exploring differences in sentencing before and after the riots. An increased probability of receiving a custodial sentence in the post-riot period was identified. An increase in variability was also detected, changing from a state of almost perfect consistency to a one in which substantial variation was observed between courts. Custodial rates for burglary increased to a level associated with more serious offences, thereby undermining the principle of proportionality. This, as well as the increased dispersion between courts, challenges other principles such as legal certainty and transparency.
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