Raising the bar: preventing aggression in and around bars, clubs and pubs

TL;DRAbstract

Being with friends, engaging in romantic/sexual encounters, parading, dancing and experiencing altered states are all part of celebrating weekends and switching off from everyday realities.Most nights out go well but some, as we have seen, end 'in tears'.(Parker and Williams 2003: 364) In this chapter, we describe the overall social context and functions of drinking in licensed premises, including the many variations of such establishments.Within these contexts, a certain amount of trouble is generally considered 'normal'.However, as was evident by the examples in Chapter 1 and discussed further in this chapter, normal and harmless trouble can readily become serious and injurious violence.Therefore, in order to understand how and why violence occurs in drinking establishments, we need to understand normal patterns of social interactions in licensed premises, including 'normal trouble'.In the final section of this chapter, we describe theoretical perspectives that help explain the proce

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