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NT tops nation for grog
violence, study
By PETER CAIN
29 April 02
The
Territory has the nation's worst record of alcohol-related violence, a
new report has found.
The research found that alcohol-related injuries are 20 times higher in
the Territory than the Australian Capital Territory.
Those figures have led to another call for widening the price gap between "heavy" and "light" beers.
Research by the National Drug Research Institute and the Turning Point Alcohol and Drug Centre in Melbourne found that serious assaults resulting from alcohol use accounted for more that 8600 hospital admissions nationally every year.
"Another 62,500 serious alcohol-related assaults are reported to police every year and many others go unreported," NDRI director Professor Tim Stockwell said.
The report showed the Territory's record of alcohol-related violence is far greater than any Australian state.
In 1998-99, one in every 263 adult Territorians was admitted to hospital with a serious alcohol-related injury. That was more than five times greater than the next worst, Western Australia, with one in every 1193 adults, while in the ACT, the figure was one in every 5106.
Professor Stockwell said the study found levels of alcohol-related violence appeared to broadly tie in with total levels of alcohol consumption in the community.
"For example, we found that by far the highest estimated rate of alcohol-caused assault hospitalisations was in the Northern Territory, where per capita consumption is around 50 per cent higher than the rest of the country," Professor Stockwell said.
"This suggests that measures aimed at reducing the overall amount of alcohol consumed, such as pricing strategies to favour lower-strength beers, could have an impact on alcohol-caused violence."
Professor Stockwell said other research done by
the NDRI showed that violence in and around licensed premises is mostly
concentrated on a handful of large establishments, most of which have
late trading hours...
Northern Territory News
