School of Medicine and Public Health, University of Newcastle, Callaghan, NSW 2308, Australia.
Hunter Medical Research Institute, 1 Kookaburra Circuit, New Lambton Heights, NSW 2305, Australia.
Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2019 Nov 21;16(23):4637. doi: 10.3390/ijerph16234637.
Amid concerns about increasing alcohol-related violence in licensed premises, Queensland introduced a system of risk-based licensing (RBL) in 2009, the first of five Australian jurisdictions to do so. Under RBL, annual license fees are supposed to reflect the risk of harm associated with the outlet's trading hours and record of compliance with liquor laws. The objective is to improve service and management practices thereby reducing patron intoxication and related problems. Using police data, we defined cases as assaults that occurred during so-called 'high-alcohol hours', and compared a pre-intervention period of 2004-2008 with the post-intervention period 2009-2014. We employed segmented linear regression, adjusting for year and time of assault (high vs. low alcohol hours), to model the incidence of (1) all assaults and (2) a subset that police indicated were related to drinking in licensed premises. We found a small decrease in all assaults (β = -5 per 100,000 persons/year; 95% CI: 2, 9) but no significant change in the incidence of assault attributed to drinking in licensed premises (β = -8; 95% CI: -18, 2). Accordingly, we concluded that the results do not support a hypothesis that RBL is effective in the prevention of harm from licensed premises. There may be value in trialing regulatory schemes with meaningful contingencies for non-compliance, and, in the meantime, implementing demonstrably effective strategies, such as trading hour restrictions, if the aim is to reduce alcohol-related violence.
在关注持牌场所日益增加的与酒精相关的暴力事件的背景下，昆士兰州于 2009 年引入了基于风险的许可制度（RBL），这是澳大利亚五个实行该制度的司法管辖区之一。根据 RBL，年度许可证费用应反映与该场所营业时间和遵守酒类法律记录相关的伤害风险。其目的是改善服务和管理实践，从而减少顾客醉酒和相关问题。我们使用警方数据，将发生在所谓“高酒精时段”的袭击事件定义为案例，并将干预前的 2004-2008 年与干预后的 2009-2014 年进行比较。我们采用分段线性回归，根据年份和袭击发生时间（高酒精时段与低酒精时段）进行调整，以模拟（1）所有袭击事件和（2）警方表示与持牌场所饮酒有关的一个子集的发生率。我们发现所有袭击事件的发生率略有下降（β=-5/100,000 人/年；95%CI：2，9），但与在持牌场所饮酒有关的袭击事件发生率没有显著变化（β=-8；95%CI：-18，2）。因此，我们的结论是，结果不支持 RBL 可有效预防持牌场所伤害的假设。可能有价值的是，尝试具有非合规性的有意义的意外情况的监管计划，同时，如果目的是减少与酒精相关的暴力，实施明显有效的策略，如营业时间限制。
