Policing Violence Against Women and Girls in the Night-Time Economy

Gendered violence, harm and harassment are embedded experiences within much of the ‘Night-time Economy’ (NTE). Survey, research and policy-related data bear testament to the common, almost routine, experiences of criminal and harmful behaviours that women and girls are subject to in their everyday social and working lives within leisure and entertainment spaces. In this chapter we explore the nature and impact of contemporary policing responses to VAWG in the NTE. We welcome that some police services, in the UK and elsewhere, have begun to take steps to address identified problems. Nonetheless, significant challenges remain, stemming from a relatively narrow conceptualisation of VAWG concentrated on stranger-perpetrated physical assaults within regulated licensed premises and their environs within city centre ‘central business district’ localities. Other manifestations of VAWG, for example, harassment, verbal abuse and non-consensual touching remain largely unaddressed in the policing of the NTE. In addition, there is little focus on the intersectional nature of victimhood in the NTE, and a lack of initiatives focused on VAWG inside venues. Consideration of the breadth and spectrum of VAWG in the NTE raises important questions too about the capacity and remit of the public police, particularly in a climate of austerity and funding cuts. In doing so we highlight that other plural or third-party policing agencies need to be more centrally engaged in efforts to tackle these serious forms of crime and harm experienced by women and girls.