The Experts below are selected from a list of 213 Experts worldwide ranked by ideXlab platform
Robin Room - One of the best experts on this subject based on the ideXlab platform.
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Decriminalising Public Drunkenness: Accountability and monitoring needed in the ongoing and evolving management of Public intoxication.
Drug and alcohol review, 2020Co-Authors: Amy Pennay, Michael Savic, Kate Seear, Isabelle Volpe, Victoria Manning, Robin RoomAbstract:In light of the recent announcement from the Victorian (Australia) state government that they are moving to decriminalise Public Drunkenness and replace it with a 'health-based response', it is timely to reflect on a number of important considerations identified from the academic literature on this topic. We briefly review a number of models of health-care delivery that have been utilised in other jurisdictions, and suggest there are opportunities at a more principled level to respond more adequately to the decriminalisation of Public Drunkenness in Victoria (and elsewhere). First, embedding research and evaluation, particularly that draws on the needs, views and experiences of those who are deemed to be drunk in Public, is essential from the outset, and must be ongoing to enable the continual refinement of models of care. Second, significant funding and intersectoral support are needed to ensure that the laws are not tokenistic and do not remain the responsibility of police. Third, there are opportunities to put policies and principles in place to ensure that police do not use more coercive powers to address concerns around Public Drunkenness. Most importantly, state-wide education and training efforts are needed alongside the repeal of the law to ensure that emergency services and health-care workers (as well as the community), have a good understanding of the contexts and needs of people who are considered drunk in Public, and consequently treat them with care and respect.
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Alcohol consumption and social harm—conceptual issues and historical perspectives
Contemporary Drug Problems, 1996Co-Authors: Robin RoomAbstract:The historical primacy of social harm from drinking In modern industrial societies, the primary rubric under which alcohol-related problems are usually considered is that of health or mental health. The main governing image for individuals with drinking-related problems-alcoholism or the alcohol dependence syndrome-is classed in the International Classification of Diseases as a mental health disorder. Treatment or counseling agencies for alcohol problems are usually under the aegis of the ministry of health. Substantial attention is often paid to the health consequences of heavy drinking: liver cirrhosis, head and neck cancers, the fetal alcohol syndrome, and so on. These days, a new health consequencethe potential protective effects of moderate drinking for heart disease-is being factored into individual and policy decisions. But typically, the factoring is in an equation where only health consequences are considered-where the issue is defined in terms of balancing livers against hearts. It is thus easy for us to forget that it is historically more common for societies to define alcohol-related problems in terms of social harms from drinking. While there is a wide variety of harms for which alcohol has somewhere been seen as responsible, in European and North American societies the major social harms with which alcohol has been identified form a fairly short list: problems of Public order or demeanor and of alcohol-related violence; problems in the performance of family and parental roles; and problems in work roles and of lost productivity. In recent decades, casualties related to drinking-particularly those due to driving while intoxicated-have also been identified as a serious social problem (Gusfield, 1981). Although there have been variations over time in the degree of social attention paid to the problems, the profile of social harms attributed to alcohol, with the exception of drinkingdriving, has remained fairly constant since the heyday of the classical temperance movements. By the end of the 19th century, Public Drunkenness was criminalized in France, northern Europe and English-speaking countries. An early preoccupation of the U.S. temperance movement was with the contribution of drinking to crime; a mid-19th-century study estimated that three-quarters of all prisoners were in jail for drinkingrelated offenses. In the classical temperance era, the husband's drinking was also commonly blamed for "wife-whipping"-i.e., family violence (Levine, 1983). By the late l9th century, a main theme of the temperance movement's struggle against alcohol was "home protection"; stereotypically, the male's drinking was seen as threatening the peace, stability, and finances of the family, and more generally as opposed to women's interests (Levine, 1980). The concern over labor productivity actually dates much further back; in medieval Europe, this lay behind the criminalization of loitering in taverns, particularly in times of labor shortage. In the l9th century, many industrial capitalists sided with temperance interests and often built alcohol-free factory towns, seeing workers' drinking as a threat to the efficiency and safety of their industrial enterprises. During the First World War, Britain nationalized the brewers and taverns in shipbuilding areas as a way of maximizing shipyard productivity for the war effort. Alcohol and social harm today: perceptions and records To a greater or lesser extent, the same general issues and concerns continue today. In some but not all developed societies, Public Drunkenness continues to be seen as problematic, although in many places there has been at least a partial decriminalization. In the Soviet alcohol reforms of 1985, the official rhetoric was primarily directed against two main problems: Public Drunkenness-particularly in the form of street drinking groups-and loss of productivity from workplace drinking (Partanen, 1987). In terms of numbers of arrests and convictions, two major alcohol-specific crimes, drinking-driving offenses and Public Drunkenness, continue to hold a prominent place in U. …
Joe Byrne - One of the best experts on this subject based on the ideXlab platform.
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The role of a rural sobering up centre in managing alcohol-related harm to Aboriginal people in South Australia
Drug and alcohol review, 2006Co-Authors: Margaret Brady, Ruth Nicholls, Graham Henderson, Joe ByrneAbstract:There is a paucity of literature on the topic of sobering-up centres (non-custodial safe overnight accommodation for the Publicly intoxicated). This paper presents findings of a retrospective longitudinal case study of a sobering-up centre in regional South Australia over the ten years 1991 to 2000. There were 6,486 admissions during this period, 97.1% of which were of Aboriginal people. We collated and analysed primary data including demographic details of admissions and re-admissions, and qualitative and quantitative measures of intoxication. The findings from this case study, considered together with contextual understandings from a wider social study in this region by three of the authors, provide supporting evidence of the important role of sobering-up centres in averting the known harms of a custodial response to Public Drunkenness, as well as avoiding the potential harm of alcohol-related injury among vulnerable Aboriginal people.
Amy Pennay - One of the best experts on this subject based on the ideXlab platform.
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Decriminalising Public Drunkenness: Accountability and monitoring needed in the ongoing and evolving management of Public intoxication.
Drug and alcohol review, 2020Co-Authors: Amy Pennay, Michael Savic, Kate Seear, Isabelle Volpe, Victoria Manning, Robin RoomAbstract:In light of the recent announcement from the Victorian (Australia) state government that they are moving to decriminalise Public Drunkenness and replace it with a 'health-based response', it is timely to reflect on a number of important considerations identified from the academic literature on this topic. We briefly review a number of models of health-care delivery that have been utilised in other jurisdictions, and suggest there are opportunities at a more principled level to respond more adequately to the decriminalisation of Public Drunkenness in Victoria (and elsewhere). First, embedding research and evaluation, particularly that draws on the needs, views and experiences of those who are deemed to be drunk in Public, is essential from the outset, and must be ongoing to enable the continual refinement of models of care. Second, significant funding and intersectoral support are needed to ensure that the laws are not tokenistic and do not remain the responsibility of police. Third, there are opportunities to put policies and principles in place to ensure that police do not use more coercive powers to address concerns around Public Drunkenness. Most importantly, state-wide education and training efforts are needed alongside the repeal of the law to ensure that emergency services and health-care workers (as well as the community), have a good understanding of the contexts and needs of people who are considered drunk in Public, and consequently treat them with care and respect.
David Giacopassi - One of the best experts on this subject based on the ideXlab platform.
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Alcohol Availability and Alcohol-Related Crime
Criminal Justice Review, 1992Co-Authors: B. Grant Stitt, David GiacopassiAbstract:The role that alcohol plays in facilitating crime is widely acknowledged, and alcohol's relationship to crimes against persons has been well documented. Nevertheless, there have been few systematic attempts to examine the dynamics of what are referred to as alcohol-related crimes (driving under the influence, Public Drunkenness, disorderly conduct, vagrancy, and liquor law violations). Given that these offenses account for approximately one third of the arrests made annually in the United States, the role of alcohol in these offenses clearly warrants analysis. The present study examines the relationship of alcohol availability in each state, as measured by the prevalence of various types of alcohol outlets, to arrest rates for alcohol-related offenses, controlling for relevant demographic and socioeconomic variables. The results indicate that density and type of alcohol outlets are, indeed, significant predictors of alcohol-related crimes. The findings suggest, however, that outlets have widely varied eff...
Margaret Brady - One of the best experts on this subject based on the ideXlab platform.
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The role of a rural sobering up centre in managing alcohol-related harm to Aboriginal people in South Australia
Drug and alcohol review, 2006Co-Authors: Margaret Brady, Ruth Nicholls, Graham Henderson, Joe ByrneAbstract:There is a paucity of literature on the topic of sobering-up centres (non-custodial safe overnight accommodation for the Publicly intoxicated). This paper presents findings of a retrospective longitudinal case study of a sobering-up centre in regional South Australia over the ten years 1991 to 2000. There were 6,486 admissions during this period, 97.1% of which were of Aboriginal people. We collated and analysed primary data including demographic details of admissions and re-admissions, and qualitative and quantitative measures of intoxication. The findings from this case study, considered together with contextual understandings from a wider social study in this region by three of the authors, provide supporting evidence of the important role of sobering-up centres in averting the known harms of a custodial response to Public Drunkenness, as well as avoiding the potential harm of alcohol-related injury among vulnerable Aboriginal people.