Violent crime, disorder and criminal damage since the introduction of the Licensing Act 2003

Home Office Online Report 16/07


Penny Babb

Summary

• A subset of 30 forces in England and Wales provided data for violent crimes, disorder and criminal damage offences recorded between October 2004 and September 2006. Of these forces, 18 also provided data for offences recorded as occurring at specified locations such as city centres and in or near licensed premises.

• The numbers of more serious violent crimes fell in the year after the introduction of the Licensing Act in November 2005 compared with the previous year, with the decreases occurring particularly in the evening hours before midnight, but with increases between 3am and 6am.

• A fall also occurred in less serious wounding offences in the year after the Act. The number of these offences had been rising prior to the Act.

• There is an indication of some increase between the hours of 3am and 6am for each offence group, but the total offences in this time period account for only a very small proportion of the 24-hour total (four per cent in the year to November 2006).

• The rise from 3am and up to 6am is likely to partly reflect the change to opening hours of licensed premises and the increased numbers of people in a public place at these times, including the police, with greater resources being placed on the streets to deal with disorder.

• There was no overall percentage change in the number of assault without injury offences occurring in the night-time period in the year following the introduction of the Act for the 30 forces, though in this instance the overall figure for England and Wales indicated an estimated increase of five per cent. While the levels fell in the early evening, there was a rise in the early hours of the morning. This pattern of assault with no injury recording may have been influenced by the widening of the powers of arrest in January 2006.

• The numbers of harassment offences showed a rise in the year preceding the introduction of the Act, in part driven by the increased use of penalty notices for disorder. The increase continued after the Act came in and was greater for offences occurring in the night-time period than during the day.

• In the police force areas covered by this study, there was a small (two per cent) increase in criminal damage offences occurring after 9pm in the year following the introduction of the Act, even though overall criminal damage fell slightly (One per cent).

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