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INTRODUCTION
The literature on violent crime is extensive and interest in night-time economy related violence (that is, violence in and around late-night entertainment centres, particularly pubs and clubs) has been growing; an unsurprising trend given that recorded violent incidents in the night-time economy outnumber those in the day-time economy by three to one (Winlow and Hall, 2006). Night-time economy violence is often considered to be synonymous with alcohol-related violence as the two frequently co-occur.
Finney (2004) highlighted that alcohol misuse was a prominent factor in the level of violent behaviour in urban centres, and indicated that these problems were directly associated with the night-time economy. Furthermore, there is an association between the number of licensed premises in a geographical area and the overall level of violence in that area (Graham and Homel, 2008). Research has shown that offender and/or victim drinking is associated with night-time economy-related assaults; for example, Hutchinson et al (1998) found that at least 90 per cent of assaults in bars involved offender and/or victim drinking in the 4 hours before the assault. The risk of incidents escalating is also increased where both parties are drinking (Murdoch et al , 1990; Graham et al , 1998).
Situational factors also play an important role in the relationship between alcohol use and crime (Felson et al , 1997), with associations between aggression and environmental factors in bars being strong and predictable (Graham et al , 2006; Graham and Homel, 2008), and a disproportionate amount of alcohol-related harm being associated with drinking in licensed premises (Stockwell, 1997) - around half of alcohol-related assaults take place in or around pubs and clubs (Budd, 2003). This shows the importance of tackling alcohol-related crime in efforts to reduce the level of night-time economy violence. It is not surprising, therefore, that efforts to reduce violence in our towns and cities on weekend evenings are repeatedly focused on tackling alcohol-related harm.
The Licensing Act 2003 revolutionized licensing and introduced a range of police powers designed to support enforcement of the Act. The Licensing Act 2003 works in conjunction with numerous other pieces of legislation, for example, the Criminal Justice and Police Act 2001, to tackle violence and disorder in the night-time economy; for a more in-depth discussion of the...