Déjà Q in the Australian nightlife: ID scanners and violent crime in night-time entertainment districts
| Author | Kurt M Piron,Grant J Devilly |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1177/26338076221094874 |
| Published date | 01 September 2022 |
| Date | 01 September 2022 |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
Déjà Q in the Australian
nightlife: ID scanners and
violent crime in night-time
entertainment districts
Kurt M Piron and Grant J Devilly
School of Applied Psychology, Griffith University, Mt Gravatt,
Queensland, Australia; Griffith Criminology Institute, Griffith University,
Mt Gravatt, Queensland, Australia
Abstract
On July 1, 2017, the mandatory use of identification (ID) scanners as a prerequisite to licenced
venue entry came into effect in all 15 major night-time entertainment districts (NEDs) across
Queensland (Australia). This relatively contemporary situational crime prevention technique func-
tions to (1) supplement traditional door-staff enforced control access and (2) increase personal
accountability by reducing perceived anonymity inside licenced venues. The current study examined
the association between the ID scanner legislation and violent crime rates in the Fortitude Valley
NED (Brisbane, Queensland), a leading hotspot for street violence. Police crime data was examined
one year before ID scanner enforcement, and one year after, with each year matched quarterly to
test Pearson’s chi-square contingencies by time of year. Violent summary offences (less serious vio-
lent offences) increased substantially in the first three months following the ID scanner legislative
change, while general summary offences (i.e., public nuisance) and indictable offences (e.g., assaults)
remained statistically unchanged. The introduction of ID scanners was the only legislative change
that occurred in the Fortitude Valley NED during data collection, suggesting a highly probable
link to the observed spike in violent offences. Potential determinants of this upsurge in violence
are discussed, including inefficient queue management and increased provocations for violence in
queues to nightclubs resulting from the prolonged ID scanning process.
Keywords
Assaults, identification scanners, situational crime prevention theory, night-time
entertainment districts, pubs
Date received: 23 August 2021; accepted: 30 March 2022
Corresponding author:
Grant J Devilly, School of Applied Psychology, Griffith University, Mt Gravatt Campus, Queensland 4122, Australia.
Email: grant@devilly.org
Article
Journal of Criminology
2022, Vol. 55(3) 359–376
© The Author(s) 2022
Article reuse guidelines:
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DOI: 10.1177/26338076221094874
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Study purpose and rationale
On July 1, 2017, the mandatory use of identification (ID) scanners as a prerequisite to licenced
venue entry came into effect in all 15 major night-time entertainment districts (NEDs) across
Queensland (Australia). Unlike the suite of alcohol laws implemented one year prior (i.e., July
1, 2016), the ID scanners were the only legislative change that occurred in the districts during
this period. This provided a unique opportunity to conduct a nuanced evaluation of this rela-
tively contemporary situational crime prevention (SCP) measure in isolation. We specifically
focused on violent crime rates in Fortitude Valley NED, as this is a widely known hotspot
for street violence in Queensland and is the largest NED in Queensland. Indeed, the
Tackling Alcohol Fuelled Violence Amendment Act 2016 was specifically related to the
‘Coward Punch’death of Cole Miller in this NED. Crime data analysed in the current study
consisted of police arrests specifically reported from the NED under evaluation, providing a
more accurate representation of the ID scanners than previous research (e.g., Palmer et al.,
2013). Drawing upon established criminological frameworks and relevant literature to
inform our predictions, the aim was to evaluate the impact of ID scanner introduction into a
large NED with a prior history of violence.
Background
An upsurge in fatal one-punch assaults in Australian NEDs in recent decades has received
extensive attention from media and policymakers (Pilgrim et al., 2014; Schreiber et al.,
2016). Also referred to as ‘King Hit’or ‘Coward’s Punch’attacks (Ferguson & Robson,
2014), alcohol has been seen as a key contributing factor to the vast majority of these
crimes (Schumann, 2019) –impacting the lives of both victims and perpetrators (Flynn
et al., 2016). Alcohol-related violence (in general) has been a growing concern in Australian
NEDs and numerous alcohol laws have been formulated to ameliorate this complex issue
(Howard et al., 2014).
One year prior to the ID scanner mandate (i.e., July 1, 2016), a suite of alcohol laws was
rolled out across all 15 major Queensland NEDs (see Figure 2). These laws included but are
not limited to: the cessation of alcohol sales in nightclubs after 3:00 a.m.; banning the sale of
rapid intoxication drinks after midnight; and lockout laws that prevent people entering
venues after 3:00 a.m. (Howard et al., 2014). Given that these laws aim to reduce violent
offences through restriction of alcohol sales or modification of drinking environments
(Howard et al., 2014), they fit within the SCP framework (Clarke, 1997; Cornish &
Clarke, 2003). Specifically, these laws reduce the total amount of time to purchase
alcohol and, thus, decrease the overall availability of alcohol in the districts. SCP Theory
posits that such alcohol server interventions ‘remove excuses’for violent crime to be com-
mitted (Clarke, 1997; Cornish & Clarke, 2003). In this instance, the ‘excuse’pertains to the
myopic effects of acute alcohol consumption, in which an individual’s attentional focus
narrows to immediate violence-provoking cues and away from the potential consequences
of engaging in violence (Giancola et al., 2011; Steele & Josephs, 1990). This hypothesis
is, of course, contingent on alcohol being the primary contributing factor to violence in
the districts.
Homes appear highly vulnerable to displacement effects from laws that increase the scarcity
of alcohol in NEDs (Devilly et al., 2019) and remain a major blind spot for alcohol policy in
360 Journal of Criminology 55(3)
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