One for the Road

Bimbo Deluxe, Fitzroy

One of the reasons Perthians make the eastern migration to Melbourne is its vibrant bar culture. One which echoes dingy European cities with bad weather, and allows the disgruntled twenty-something to trawl dark streets for hours on end making discoveries about themselves, the world, and members of the opposite sex.

This right of passage is in jeopardy, with Victorian premier John Brumby introducing a 2am lockout restricting entry to licenced inner city venues after this time. Patrons inside would be denied re-entry if they left, effectively locking them in.

The motivation for these changes are Victorian Police crime statistics such as a 17.5% increase in violent assault over the past twelve months in the inner city.

But is this a really a solution? When implemented in June, it is bound to further suffocate Melbourne's bar industry.

Melbourne City Council has temporarily frozen new licenses from opening beyond 1am, with heavy penalties to existing venues for this privilege. It is a dark sentiment amongst bar industry stalwarts such as Gin Palace owner Vernon Chalker who feels that only the strongest will be able to survive in such a competitive and restrictive environment.

It will discourage the smaller operators from setting up unique niche places, the kind of places Melbourne is synonymous with. 

This is a great tragedy, and reeks of the typical reactionary approach of government to act on the symptoms rather than the root of the problem.

If the disinhibitory effects of alcohol result in interpersonal violence, what does that say about society as a whole? Maybe we are becoming increasingly violent people and the solution is to be found away from the darkened laneways.

There is increasing evidence that introducing conflict resolution programs in high schools has a significant effect on reducing violent youth. Reducing Violence in the High School (Stader/Johnson 1999) presented an eight year conflict mediation program in Missouri which used peer mediators to counsel violent students on how to deal with conflict in a non-violent way. The results were impressive. Suspensions due to violence dropped from an average of 3.6 per month to 1.2. 

More importantly, not a single student who had been through the program was involved in another violent act.

By intervening early in an adolescent's developmental period, they were able to create lasting mechanisms that reduced future episodes of interpersonal violence.

Early intervention is taken further with Hill Walker's First Steps program developed at the Univeristy of Oregon. This is a kindergarten based program which uses screening to identify children at risk. Walker acknowledges the contextual nature of a child's development. Factors such as socioeconomic background, family support, and physical health are all taken into account. A team of childhood behavioural experts including psychologists, social workers, and teachers then work with both child and family to prevent and treat anti-social behaviour. 

This proactive approach has an excellent and lasting effect. A case study which followed program children for five years showed significant improvements in observational ratings such as aggression, adaptation, and social interaction.

Isn't this a better solution to interpersonal violence than destroying an urban sub-culture? 

Conflict resolution and early intervention programs should be mandatory in Australian high schools. Equipping high risk youth with the ability to deal with issues in a non violent way has the potential to yield a better adjusted and less violent society.

Such that when we are disinhibited by alcohol, we do not feel the need to unleash our anger onto other people. 

That's certainly worth drinking to.