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This paper reviews the evidence for the effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of policies to reduce alcohol-related harm. Policies focus on price, marketing, availability, information and education, the drinking environment, drink-driving, and brief interventions and treatment. Although there is variability in research design and measured outcomes, evidence supports the effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of policies that address affordability and marketing. An adequate reduction in temporal availability, particularly late night on-sale availability, is effective and cost-effective. Individually-directed interventions delivered to at-risk drinkers and enforced legislative measures are also effective. Providing information and education increases awareness, but is not sufficient to produce long-lasting changes in behaviour. At best, interventions enacted in and around the drinking environment lead to small reductions in acute alcohol-related harm. Overall, there is a rich evidence base to support the decisions of policy makers in implementing the most effective and cost-effective policies to reduce alcohol-related harm. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction and Aims. To examine alcohol consumed during a drinking event (a single drinking occasion) by those attending public house/on-trade establishments on nights with standard pricing and nights with promotional prices. Design and Methods. Data (n = 425) were collected in an ecological momentary assessment over eight nights in two locations (Midlands and London) on both promotional and standard (Saturday) nights. Multiple regression was used to predict event alcohol consumption by sex, age, type of night, alcohol preloading behaviour,marital and employment status, education, Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test alcohol consumption questions separately or total AUDIT-C and social group size. Results. Mean (UK) units consumed were 11.8 (London) and 14.4 (Midlands). In London, consumption was similar on promotional and standard nights, but in the Midlands, standard night consumption was three units higher. Preloading was reported by 30%; more common on standard nights. Regression analyses revealed being male, preloading and past-year total AUDIT-C were associated with higher event consumption. However, when AUDIT-C questions were added separately, being a standard night was associated with increased event consumption and different AUDIT-C questions were significantly associated with event consumption in each location. Discussion and Conclusions.Event consumption reflected heavy episodic drinking and was influenced by price. Promotional night consumption either matched standard Saturday night consumption or was slightly lower. In London, there was a significant preference for drinking at least one promotional beverage on promotional nights.On standard nights, consumption was over a wider range of venues, and preloading with off-trade alcohol was more likely. [McClatchley K, Shorter GW, Chalmers J. Deconstructing alcohol use on a night out in England: Promotions, preloading and consumption. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study uses recent advances in time-series econometrics to investigate the non-stationarity and co-integration properties of violent crime series in England and Wales. In particular, we estimate the long-run impact of economic conditions, beer consumption and various deterrents on different categories of recorded violent crime. The results suggest that a long-run causal model exists for only minor crimes of violence, with beer consumption being a predominant factor. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Irresponsible and excessive consumption of alcohol and the associated problems it carries in its wake have become one of the key concerns for central government in terms of community safety, especially in the night-time economy. In response to the Alcohol Harm Reduction Strategy for England (), the Department of Health (DoH) has announced a series of measures of which one is to pilot screening and intervention for alcohol use in a variety of locations, including criminal justice settings. This article reports on the findings of a project that pre-empts the DoH initiatives, thus providing the opening comments in what will be sure to be a debate about a new strategic and evidence-based approach to dealing with alcohol-related crime and disorder. The article provides data and discussions on the Screening and Brief Intervention (SBI) project that screened 3,900 detainees in a busy custody suite in the south of England during the period March 2007 to March 2008. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reports the results of a qualitative analysis of semi-structured interviews with 79 members of the Birmingham Untreated Heavy Drinkers Cohort. The cohort was recruited in 1997 when all participants were drinking 50 or more standard units of alcohol (men) or 35 or more units (women) most weeks. Present interviews were carried out as part of the fourth wave of interviews, held in 2003. The topic was the participants' places of drinking in the community and the functions those places served. The present analysis focused on the relationship between pubs and community. The strongest theme to emerge was that the pub provided for many participants a real sense of community in itself. It did so by enabling participants to meet with like-minded others, in a setting distinct from home or work, where conversing and confiding could take place in a relaxed atmosphere, with a range of other activities and forms of social support available to many. At the same time, participants were discriminating about which pubs they used, and when, and with whom they chose to interact. There was less consensus about whether the pub served a wider function by contributing to a positive sense of community in the local neighbourhood. It is suggested that English pubs, at least in a large conurbation such as the West Midlands, are very varied, sometimes continuing to serve as ‘the local’ for a community, sometimes being part of a variety of drinking places which between them provide people with a diversity of social niches to meet their increasingly diverse choices and preferences, and sometimes reflecting and even contributing to local community disorganisation. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article discusses the role of alcohol consumption in the same-sex friendships and leisure activities of male football players at a university in the south of England. The article refers to research on the integral role that the public house has had in the football experience in England for over a century. The authors state that there is an implicit link between organised sport and the consumption of alcohol. The authors also assert that the student bar provides an atmosphere of community where the imperatives of male hegemony are celebrated.

Presents a study exploring the relative power of denominational identity and church attendance to predict differences in drinking behavior among a sample of adults in England. Sociological theories; Compartmentalization of religious beliefs; Research method; Findings stating that drinking behavior is unrelated to church attendance.