Analysis reveals assaults eight times higher on NYE
New Year’s Eve revellers in Western Australian were urged to curb their celebratory drinking this year in the light of new figures showing a massive surge in the number of assaults in the six hours from 10pm during the festivities every year.
Making the front page of The West Australian newspaper, a National Drug Research Institute analysis of Western Australian Police figures for the past five years revealed that the average number of assaults per hour was more than eight times higher between 10pm and 4am on New Year’s Eve than on other nights in December and January.
NDRI Alcohol Policy Researcher Professor Tanya Chikritzhs said that many of the assaults were likely to have been alcohol-related, and although she had expected to see more harm on New Year’s Eve, she was taken aback by the magnitude of the increase in violence.
Professor Chikritzhs urged people to reduce their risk of harm from alcohol-related violence by limiting their consumption and noted that it is not just perpetrators that tend to be intoxicated but also victims.
Posted on: 1 Jan 2016
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