The Impact of COVID-19 on Trends of Violence-Related Offences in Australia.

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the medium-term impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on violence-related offences in Australia, and whether there was evidence of a 'dual pandemic' of family violence in addition to COVID-19. METHODS: Autoregressive Integrated Moving Average time series were conducted to analyse publicly available violent crime statistics data from January 2017 to November 2021. Population rates of homicide, sexual, domestic and non-domestic assault were assessed across each Australian state and territory, with the effects of COVID-19 being modelled using the average monthly World Health Organization COVID-19 stringency rating for each jurisdiction. FINDINGS: All jurisdictions in Australia showed increasing or stable domestic assault trends over the past decade, which were not significantly impacted by COVID-19, nor by the subsequent lockdowns. Non-domestic assaults demonstrated a significant, negative relationship with the stringency index for each jurisdiction, except Western Australia. There was no significant change in the rates of homicide or sexual assault across Australia in relation to COVID-19. CONCLUSION: Overall, there was no evidence of a 'dual pandemic' in Australia, and whilst domestic assaults continue to increase across the country, non-domestic assaults showed a notable but brief decline. However, these have returned to levels at least as high as pre-COVID-19 and some states show a continuing upward trend. The findings also suggest that alcohol availability may have played a role in continuing high violence numbers. Given the ongoing increasing and high levels of family violence in Australia, revised conceptual frameworks and interventions are indicated.

Key informant perspectives on 3 am last drinks legislation in Queensland, Australia.

INTRODUCTION: The objective of this study was to explore key informant attitudes towards the 'Last Drinks at 3am' legislation in Safe Night Precincts in Queensland, Australia. METHOD: Sixty-six interviews were conducted with a range of stakeholders including licensees, law enforcement and frontline health professionals. Interviews were semi-structured and analysed using thematic analysis. Key informants responded to questions regarding their experiences of, and opinions about, the last drinks legislation. RESULTS: Key informants reported a range of experiences around the impact of last drinks restrictions, including reduced staffing costs and patron-related problems within licensed venues. While some venues reported that their businesses lost money, others reported no change in income or that they changed their business model to compensate. Law enforcement and health professionals reported a range of benefits including reduced alcohol-related anti-social behaviour, drunkenness and injury. CONCLUSIONS: The majority of key informants reported that the last drinks legislation reduced harm, while having minimal detrimental impact on business.

A systematic narrative review of the effects of alcohol supply reduction policies on children and adolescents.

BACKGROUND: Children are often exposed to increased rates of secondary harm such as physical harm, motor vehicle incidents, maltreatment, and neglect because of others' or their own alcohol consumption. Alcohol supply reduction, or alcohol control policies, are often enacted to mitigate alcohol harms within the community. The current systematic narrative review aims to synthesise recent literature that examines how alcohol supply reduction policies impact the physical health, mental health, and offending behaviour of children and adolescents. METHODS: Eight databases and grey literature sources were systematically searched, and results were synthesised by policy under evaluation. Twenty-one peer reviewed articles and ten grey literature articles were included after screening of 7,135 original articles. Included articles examined the alcohol control policies of the minimum legal drinking age, price control, and trading restrictions, with the most common outcomes under evaluation being related to the physical health or offending behaviour of adolescents. RESULTS: Overall, the current review identified that the impact of alcohol policy on children and adolescents varied depending on the policy type, policy environment and assessed outcome. Common limitations within the literature include inability to control for covariates, use of alcohol related outcomes unsuitable to children and adolescents, and use of cross-sectional data and regression-discontinuity analysis in lieu of actual policy changes. CONCLUSIONS: The current review highlights the need to further evaluate the impact of actual alcohol-related policy changes on children and adolescents.

Coercive Controlling Behaviors and Reporting Physical Intimate Partner Violence in Australian Women: An Exploration.

This study explores two approaches to measuring coercive controlling behaviors (CCBs)-counting how many different CCB types and examining the frequency of each CCB experienced-to examine their utility in explaining the relationship between CCBs and physical intimate partner violence (IPV). Australian women aged 18-68 years (n = 739; Mage = 31.58, SDage = 11.76) completed an online survey. Count and frequency CCB approaches yielded similar significant associations with increased physical IPV. Both approaches suggest that frightening behaviors in particular are significantly indicative of also experiencing physical IPV; however, when you count CCB types, public name-calling becomes important, whereas when you examine the frequency of each CCB type, jealousy/possessiveness becomes important. These findings suggest differential utility between measures of CCBs, which examine the frequency of specific CCB types and which count CCB types, and that both approaches are useful in understanding how coercion and control relate to physical violence within intimate relationships.

Evaluating a Sport-Based Mental Health Literacy Intervention in Australian Amateur Sporting Adolescents.

Youth amateur sporting environments present an untapped, under-researched, and potentially vital avenue for targeted mental health intervention programs. This study evaluates such an intervention in 12 sporting clubs, comprising of 330 Australian youth aged 12-15 years (M = 13.73, SD = 0.79). Mental health literacy, help-seeking intentions, and help-seeking behaviors were measured throughout the season using a repeated-measures experimental-control design. Multilevel modelling revealed the intervention successfully improved mental health literacy and help-seeking intentions in particular cohorts, such as youth scoring low in these constructs pre-intervention and youth who had not previously received the intervention. This study demonstrates the efficacy of interventions to effect positive change in amateur sporting youth, highlighting a convenient method to improve mental health in young people.

The impact of changes to alcohol policy on patron drinking behaviours in Queensland.

INTRODUCTION: On 1 July 2016, stage 1 of the Tackling Alcohol-Fuelled Violence (TAFV) policy was introduced in Queensland, Australia and included restricted alcohol service to 03:00 in dedicated entertainment precincts (safe night precincts or SNPs). During stage 2 (from 1 February 2017), the number of extended trading permits (i.e. trading until 05:00) per venue were reduced; and during stage 3 (from 1 July 2017), networked identification scanners were mandated for late-night venues. We aim to examine whether patron drinking behaviours in two key SNPs changed significantly following stages 2 and 3. METHODS: The study design was repeated cross-sectional, with three data collection (policy) stages. Patrons street surveys were conducted in Fortitude Valley (n = 2066) and Cairns (n = 1021) SNPs between July 2016 and November 2018. Linear or negative binomial regressions were conducted to examine changes in three key outcomes: blood alcohol concentration (BAC) reading, proportion of pre-drinkers and number of pre-drinks. RESULTS: We found no significant difference in BAC reading, proportion of pre-drinkers or number of pre-drinks at stages 2 and 3 of the policy compared to baseline in Fortitude Valley. In Cairns, we found significant reductions in patron BAC at stage 3 of the policy, and female BAC at stages 2 and 3 compared to baseline; while the proportion of females pre-drinking significantly reduced by half in stage 2. DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSIONS: Despite evidence of some reductions in alcohol consumption, high levels of intoxication remain, suggesting harm reduction may be more difficult to achieve in these drinkers.

A systematic mapping review of interventions to improve adolescent mental health literacy, attitudes and behaviours.

AIM: The onset of mental illness is most common in adolescence, therefore mental health promotion efforts frequently target this age group. Evaluation literature in this area is largely segmented into specific domains in terms of settings, countries, and/or groups of young people, but an overall understanding and comparison across these areas is lacking. The current review aims to provide such an overview of interventions/programs which attempt to improve adolescents' mental health literacy, attitudes/stigma and behaviours. METHODS: A systematic mapping review synthesized the strengths and weaknesses of published interventions/programs to improve mental health outcomes in youth. Ten databases and grey literature sources were searched, and results were categorized according to sample, location/setting, type of information presented, delivery and testing procedures, mental health outcome/s evaluated, and limitations. RESULTS: One hundred and forty articles met the inclusion criteria; 126 were original records and 14 were reviews. Mental health literacy and attitudes/stigma were examined most frequently, and studies were predominantly conducted in school-based environments and high income economies. Intervention/program effectiveness varied across outcome/s measured, setting, and control group usage, with mental health literacy exhibiting the most positive changes overall. Common limitations included no long-term follow up or control group inclusion. CONCLUSIONS: Despite generally positive changes seen throughout studies in this area, effectiveness differed across a range of methodological domains. Most research is conducted in schools and higher income economies, but the lack of investigation in other contexts (i.e., internet or community) or lower income countries suggests our understanding in this area is constrained.

The impact of street service care on frontline service utilisation during high-alcohol use hours in one night-time entertainment precinct in Australia.

INTRODUCTION AND AIMS: Street service care providers in Queensland, Australia are organisations tasked with assisting vulnerable individuals and aiding intoxicated patrons that are at risk of harm in night-time entertainment precincts (NEP). Members of these organisations patrol NEPs and provide services, such as first aid, to individuals in need. There has been no research conducted on their impact on crime, injuries and on the duties of Australian frontline service resources (e.g. police and ambulance services). This study evaluated the introduction of a single street service care in the Cairns NEP on police-recorded assaults, emergency department injury presentations and ambulance service utilisation during high-alcohol hours. DESIGN AND METHODS: Police-recorded assaults (common and serious), emergency department injury presentations and ambulance attendances for the Cairns suburbs were examined. Autoregressive integrated moving average time series analyses were used to determine the impact of street service care on monthly counts for each dataset. RESULTS: Serious assaults during high-alcohol hours significantly declined after the introduction of the support service in Cairns, with a one-month lagged impact (B = -1.66, 95% confidence interval -3.02, -0.30). No other significant impact on common assaults, emergency department injury presentations or ambulance attendances were found. DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSIONS: This study provides preliminary evidence that street service care may help to decrease assaults within a single NEP. However, further research investigating the impact of street services in larger cities, and determining what other roles the service may be able to play in preventing alcohol-related harm, is needed.

A mapping review of evaluations of alcohol policy restrictions targeting alcohol-related harm in night-time entertainment precincts.

BACKGROUND: Alcohol-related harm in night-time entertainment precincts (NEPs) is disproportionately high for the amount of alcohol consumed within these areas. Previous evaluations of alcohol restrictions targeting NEPs have often looked at restrictions in isolation and not attempted to create a comprehensive theoretical explanation that takes multiple restrictions into account. The aim of this review is to establish which restrictions have been adequately evaluated in previous literature, and to identify any research which may provide the basis for a theoretical model that explains the interactions between different alcohol restrictions in NEPs and their combined impact on alcohol-related-harm. METHODS: A mapping review was conducted to plot evaluations of the effectiveness of different alcohol restrictions in NEPs at reducing assault and injury rates (protocol PROSPERO 2017: CRD42017069773). Six databases and 145 websites were searched, results were categorised based on the type of restrictions evaluated: Outlet density, trading hours, lockouts, price, patron bans, and drinks restrictions. RESULTS: Forty-eight articles were identified out of 20,743 returned by the systematic search. Thirty-five of these papers were original works, and 13 reviews. Outlet density was examined in 15 of the papers, trading hours in 30, lockouts in 21, price in 2, patron bans in 7 and drinks restrictions in 15. CONCLUSION: No pre-existing theoretical models were identified. Outlet density, trading hours, and price restrictions all had evidence that suggested high levels of effectiveness in NEPs and would be suitable for inclusion in a theoretical model. More research is required before attempting to include lockouts, patron bans and drinks restrictions in a theoretical model. Future research should focus on establishing a theoretical model based on evidence of effective alcohol restrictions and gathering an evidence base for under-researched restrictions.