Introduction
Several violent incidents involving alcohol consumers have led to the introduction of stringent laws like the liquor lockout law and the one-punch law in Australia. Most of the entertainment businesses operating at night are crowded with young people who engage in excessive alcohol drinking and drugs. Unfortunately, the excessive consumption of alcohol has led to many cases of assaults on young people walking in the streets while drunk. All such incidents have forced the government to introduce legislative changes. These laws have regulated alcohol-related violence and reduced their nighttime activities (Babor, Caetano, & Casswell, 2010). This research will evaluate how the university students in Sydney take these state legislative changes to help in minimizing alcohol-related violence among teenagers and youth since the night-time economy of Sydney City is mainly dominated by activities that relate to young people.
There are adequate reasons and values related to this research and the changes in the state’s legislation regarding the consumption of alcohol. This research is also crucial, as it will give a clear assessment of young people’s views on the legislation. The importance of the liquor lockout and one-punch legislation is to reduce the number of violent cases related to drunkenness (Writer 2014, pp. 7-8). Therefore, the research will highlight the effectiveness of the legislation in curbing alcohol-related violence and illustrating the views of the university students regarding these state changes.
Literature Review
Since the year 2000, alcohol-related offenses have been rising in Australia. For instance, many people under the influence of drugs or alcohol have died in the district of Kings Cross (Sydney). Recently, there were two controversial incidents involving the deaths of two young men. In July 2012, Thomas Kelly was killed by a single punch while walking in a drunken state at night in Kings Cross district. In a similar way, another young man named Daniel Christie was also murdered at the same location on New Year’s Eve. After this assault of 31st December 2013, Daniel was admitted while in a coma at St. Vincent’s Hospital (Sydney) where he succumbed to injuries after eleven days. These two cases forced the public to push the government in bringing some stringent state legislative changes (Whitley, 2014).
First, the lockout legislation was introduced to reduce the number of offenses committed under the influence of alcohol. The legislation indicates that patrons evicted from licensed businesses later than 1:30 am are not permitted to return. The legislation also states that the bottle shops will not sell alcohol after 10 pm while licensed premises will not serve alcohol after 3.00 am (Whitley, 2014).
Various researches were conducted to evaluate the effectiveness of the lockout policy. Major research to study this policy was carried out by the Alcohol and Drugs Incident Management Survey (ADIMS). This study was conducted in parts in which the first part took statistics of the related areas. The study indicated that the damages and offenses committed under the influence of alcohol decreased by 47.5% in licensed places. In public areas where no licenses were required, these assaults were reduced by 33.3% after the introduction of the lockout law. These statistics were calculated by comparing the number of assaults that were committed one year before the legislative change was brought and one year after its introduction.
The entertainment continues overnight in some popular tourist areas such as Gold Coast. It was found that the cases of assaults related to alcohol and other substance abuse rose especially in the early morning hours. This problem spread to most parts of Australia within a short time leading to the need of introducing the lockout law (One-punch law in force on NSW streets tonight 2014).
In Sydney, few university students have approved the effectiveness of this legislation. They relied on the ADIMS results to assess the impact of the state legislative changes. Most of them believe that restricting the movement of people under the influence of alcohol during the early morning hours when the streets are isolated would help to reduce alcohol-related violence.
One-punch law is another controversial state legislative change that has been brought with the lockout law. The bill bringing the one-punch law was approved by the Parliament on 30th January 2014. Unfortunately, it was the punch from an unknown person that killed Thomas Kelly on the streets of Sydney. The incident triggered the introduction of legislation that gives strict sentences to people who kill people under the influence of alcohol or some other drugs by a single punch. In addition, the one-punch law also argues that the penalty placed on someone found possessing steroids is moved up from two to twenty-five years.
Consequently, this project giving an insight into the potentials of legislative changes in reducing alcohol-related violence is worth a trial. The number of assaults related to alcohol raised the need to find a lasting solution to this problem (Stockwell & Gruenewald 2004). These alcohol-related assaults have also claimed the lives of many teenagers thus making it a threat to other young people. Considering all these factors, it is important to conduct this project so as to determine the views of students on the new legislation and check if the changes can work more efficiently in Sydney.
Conclusion
The topic of the research highlights that it will focus on university students because they are the most affected by the assaults in the streets of Sydney. It is vital to research that would clarify the potentiality of the legislative changes in reducing alcohol-related violence among young people. The best method of collecting data for this research would be by recording the assaults that have taken place after the legislation and comparing it with the previous ones.
References
Babor, T, Caetano, R, & Casswell, S 2010, Alcohol: No ordinary commodity—research and public policy, Oxford University Press, Oxford.
One-punch law in force on NSW streets tonight 2014, Web.
Stockwell, T, & Gruenewald, P 2004, The essential handbook of treatment and prevention of alcohol. Wiley, Chichester.
Whitley, A 2014, One-Hit Deaths Spur Booze Outcry as Sydney Calls Last Drink, Web.
Writer, S 2014, Two Weeks’ Notice: lockouts rushed in, Web.