Abstract
This article explores the reality of the nuisance of public drunkenness in one nightlife location of Ghent (Belgium) and in one of Trento (Italy) and inspects the way alcohol-related disorder is viewed and tackled by police officers there. Drawing on the literature arguing for the existence of different "cultures of drinking" in western and southern European countries, a distinct reality of the nuisance of public drunkenness was hypothesized to be present in these two cities. Against the backdrop of cultural criminology scholarship and of the national literature on policing practices, it was expected that the physical/aesthetic appearance of street drinkers would differently impact on the way police officers there represent alcohol-related disorder and enforce national and local nuisance regulations. The gathered data indicate that while drinking patterns and connected disorderly behavior do not significantly vary in Ghent and in Trento, the aesthetic/physical characteristics of certain groups of people play a role in shaping the representations of some police officers in Trento. The study concludes that cultural and context-specific factors, including those linked to the cultures of drinking and to aesthetics, should be considered in criminological research to more fully understand and explain the different policing views on and attitudes to alcohol-related disorder in inner-city nightlife areas. In its conclusions, the article also highlights some directions for future research.
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Notes
Such affects are usually measured in terms of units of consumption. According to Jayne et al. [8]: 829), however, such units fail to (among others) attend to the “emotional, embodied and affective geographies” of alcohol drinking and drunkenness, which are also thought to play a role in the individuals’ engagement in alcohol-related violence and disorder [9]. Such units, moreover, seem to also be relatively neglected by drinkers in their personal assessment of alcoholic consumption and intoxication [8]. For a critical account of the use of units to measure individuals’ levels of intoxication, see Jayne et al. [8]).
In their research on youth drinking in Zurich (Switzerland), Demant and Landolt [17]: 2) found that street drinking is more “accepted” in areas surrounded by bars and clubs rather than in places where such venues are absent.
Although in the study we focused on police officers’ representations (which were captured through the holding of interviews with them), we were not only interested in their views on, and enforcement attitudes to, drinking and drunkenness in night-time locations. The research focus was also (indirectly) on the dominant societal meanings assigned to drinking and drunkenness, as reflected in the views of police agents. Furthermore, we also investigated dominant societal views on drinking and drunkenness in the selected night-life locations by inquiring, during the systematic observations, bar owners, passers-by, and street drinkers through informal interviews (see the section of this article dedicated to “Results”).
The combination of deductive and inductive approaches in qualitative research has been regarded by Patton [22]: 493–4) as “analytic induction”.
Järvinen and Room [23]) speak about “beer cultures” when referring to the drinking habits of both Western and Central European countries. They oppose such cultures to the so-called “spirit cultures” widespread in the area of the North Baltic and in Eastern Europe, and to the “wine cultures” of the south of Europe.
A number of studies have questioned the validity of the distinction between “dry” and “wet” cultures, suggesting that there has been an homogenisation in the drinking patterns of Europeans [1, 3, 24, 27]. Research in the UK also indicates that the differences between the “British binge drinking” and what is perceived to be the “European”, “continental”, or “Mediterranean” more “civilized” way of drinking (which have informed national and local policies aimed at the reduction of alcohol-related disorder), has recently started to fade [28]. As argued by Jayne et al. [28]), for example, British drinkers have a complex understanding of their drinking behaviour, which is sometimes thought to fall within the British way of (binge) drinking and sometimes within the “European” (civilised) way (when the purpose of drinking is socialisation, rather than drunkenness). A few studies also argued for an overall increase in drunkenness in Europe, with people in the southern countries adopting a “Nordic” type of (binge) drinking [23, 29]. However, despite reporting increasing levels of alcohol consumption in southern countries like Spain, research has also shown that people there tend to reach only moderate levels of intoxication (see [30]).
In this study Belgium has been considered to be part of central Europe.
Featherstone [43]) highlighted the importance of style in postmodern society and the existence of (postmodern) consumer lifestyles in urban city centres, which are based on the acquisition and display of consumer products and on the individual engagement in hedonistic and playful activities. Despite recognising the existence of different lifestyle tastes within social groups or classes, Featherstone (by referring to the work of Bourdieu) argued that specific social classes (and, especially, the “new” middle classes) tend to impose their specific tastes as the “legitimate” ones.
Easton and Ponsaers [56]), for example, found that police representation of and reactions to problematic populations in multicultural neighbourhoods is based on ethnicity and immigration as much as on an array of other factors (e.g., age, gender, situation of marginality, poor socio-economic and cultural capital etc.).
One of the two hypotheses that are to be tested in this paper refers to the specific cultural differences that exist between Western European countries and the southern countries of the region. Any pair of cities situated in these two areas would have served the purpose of the exercise. Ghent and Trento have been selected also based on the author’s previous (in Trento) and current (in Ghent) living experience in these two cities.
In Ghent, a number of individual uncivil behaviour that may be also connected to public drunkenness has been penalised by way of administrative fines by the Police Regulation on Public Peace and Safety of 19 January 1998. In Trento, they are sanctioned by art. 85 of the Urban Policing Regulation.
Administrative fines have also been envisaged by local regulations to sanction bars and clubs’ owners. In Ghent, to limit and control the noise nuisance emanating from liquor licensed premises a new regulation (Vlarem) has recently entered into force (see http://www.gent.be/eCache/THE/4/216.cmVjPTE0NzYzMg.html). Also the opening of new night shops and the selling of alcoholic beverages by them has been limited by way of local regulations (see local regulation of 26 June 2012). In Trento, bars of the city centre need to comply with rigid limits in the levels of noise emissions (see the Acoustic classification plan available at http://www.comune.trento.it/Aree-tematiche/Ambiente-e-territorio/Rumore-e-elettromagnetismo/Rumore-ambientale/Classificazione-acustica).
In such a period of time, the presence of college students in both cities is rather limited due to the academic summer break. In this study, however, the presence of students has only accounted as a criterion for the city selection, not as an element informing the decision on the period of the observations. Rather than focusing solely on the drunken behaviour of students and young people, this research includes the analysis of the drinking habits and disorderly conduct of any person present in the selected location.
In some cases, the ending-point has been extended or postponed according to specific situational circumstances emerging during the observations. During weekends, for example, the time-span of the observations has been prolonged due to the large presence of people in both selected areas. In one occasion (on Saturday evening in Ghent), the starting point of the observations has also been postponed. This has been done on advice of a number of bartenders working in the cafes of the Vlasmarkt, who associated the occurrence of nuisance behaviour with the late hours of the night. The observations, therefore, have started at midnight and have been carried on until 5.00. This, to allow the researcher to grasp the nuisance behaviours happening late in the night.
Also in the areas surrounding SMMS, bars normally close not later than 2.00–2.30. This has probably to do with the municipal regulation on noise emissions with which bars and clubs located in the city centre need to comply.
With the exception of the Charlaton, which shuts at around 6.00–7.00. Such a club, however, was closed up for holidays during all the 7-nights of observations.
As the bartenders pointed out to the researcher, nobody from the bars called the police to report this episode of violence, nor did they receive any complaint from the costumers. It was then assumed that nobody called the police.
The great majority of people present in SMMS during the observations were Italian college students. However, there were also people from the north of Africa (mostly refugees), and a small number of (middle-aged) homeless (5), all drinking beer in cans or bottles. According to a north African man, who was informally interviewed during the observations, there are differences between the drinking patterns of people from the north-African region and the ones of Italians present in the night-time area: in opposition to young Italians (who tend to behave uncivilly by mostly leaving litter in the area, urinating and yelling), people from the countries of the north of Africa, when drunk, tend to engage in fights and violent behavior, as they are not used to drinking alcohol in their home countries due to religious prohibitions. An indication of the violent behavior adopted by this latter group of people when intoxicated by alcohol can be found below in the text, where I describe the physical attack that was carried out by a young north African man against one Italian during the Saturday evening in SMMS.
This is a typical aperitif of the north-east area of Italy, made from aperol, Prosecco and soda.
The presence of the police chief was pointed out to the researcher in an informal conversation with a person who deals drugs in the area, who emphasized that his presence there is not an unusual circumstance. Quite the opposite, the police chief is often seen in the area after the occurrence of grave episodes of physical aggression (like the one occurred on Saturday). This, as pointed out by frequent visitors of the area in informal conversations, has to be reconnected with the raising complaints of the residents, which challenge the action of the local law enforcement also through the local press. Although I did not seek for a direct contact with the police superintendent, I had informal conversations with his interlocutors.
Public drunkenness is sanctioned by the Belgian Law of 14 November 1939, where it is stipulated that: “The person who is found in a state of intoxication in a public place is punished: [...] with a fine of 15 francs [0.40 EUR] to 25 francs [0.60 EUR] [...] if the offender causes disorder, scandal, or danger to another person or to himself, he can be detained in the municipal house of detention or in the security room of the gendarmerie for a minimum of two up to a maximum of twelve hours”.
Public disorder is an offence envisaged by art. 31 par. 2 of the Law on Police Services of 5 August 1992, which allows police officers, “in cases of absolute necessity”, to arrest “a person who disturbs the public peace”.
A few interviewees also made reference to the importance of alcohol for the local economy. One of the interviewees, for example, referred to the strong influence exerted by the “powerful lobby of bar keepers” in the local policy-making.
Here, the contravention envisaged at art. 688 of the Italian Criminal Code applies: “Anyone who is caught in a state of obvious intoxication in a public place [...] shall be punished with the administrative fine from 50 to 309 EUR”.
See Comitato Torre Vanga https://www.facebook.com/groups/236481156509302/?fref=ts.
The two cases of public drunkenness observed on Saturday evening have not been considered in this part of analysis, as the intervention was pursued by agents of the Polizia di Stato, rather than by the Polizia Locale (on which this paper is focused).
Local police statistics rely on aggregated data, which refer to the time-span stretching from January 2010 to October 2014.
For a media news published in the last day of the observations (6 September 2014), see http://www.ladige.it/articoli/2014/09/08/portela-ultimatum-vigili-privati.
In practice, residents may well have called the police. However, it has here been assumed that no complaint was filed, as no (even late) police intervention followed.
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Di Ronco, A. Public drunkenness as a nuisance in Ghent (Belgium) and Trento (Italy). Crime Law Soc Change 66, 59–81 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10611-016-9624-8
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10611-016-9624-8