Liquor outlet density and assault

Release Date: 24 February 2011

Only 3 per cent of the Sydney LGA is within 20 metres of a liquor outlet, yet 37 per cent of assaults in Sydney LGA occur within 20 metres of a liquor outlet.

More than half of the assaults recorded by police in the Sydney CBD occur within 50 metres of a liquor outlet.

Each additional alcohol outlet per hectare in the Sydney LGA will result, on average, in 4.5 additional assaults per annum.

These are the key findings to emerge from a study of assaults in and around licensed premises in the Sydney Local Government Area (LGA).

The Bureau analyzed the proportions of assaults recorded by police within 20, 50, 100 and 200 metre buffer zones around each licensed premise in the Sydney LGA. The proportions were compared with the land area covered by the buffer, with the proportion of assaults recorded around a set of randomly generated 'sentinel' points and with the proportion of assaults found around commercial premises other than liquor outlets.

More than half (56.8%) of the assaults examined by the Bureau occurred within 50 metres of a liquor outlet, even though the area within 50 metres of a liquor outlet accounts for only 12.9 per cent of the area in the Sydney LGA.

The assault rate within 20 metres of a licensed premises was found to be 25 recorded incidents per hectare, compared with 1-2 assaults per hectare around the randomly generated sentinel points.

The assault rate near other types of commercial premises was higher than the assault rate around the randomly generated sentinel points.

Assault incidents within 20 metres of commercial premises accounted for 17.2 per cent of all assaults, even though the land area within 20 metres of Sydney commercial premises accounts for only 2.8 per cent of the Sydney LGA.

This is much smaller, however, than the proportion (37 per cent) of assaults found within 20 metres of a licensed premises.

Assaults were found to be highly concentrated around licensed premises clustering around George Street in the central business district (CBD), Darlinghurst Road in Kings Cross, Oxford Street in Darlinghurst, King Street in Newtown and Glebe Point Road in Glebe.

Further enquiries: Dr Don Weatherburn 9231-9190, 0419-494-408