Bingeing women fuel crime

Heavy drinking has fuelled a culture of "thuggery and intimidation", the Home Secretary admits today, a fact laid bare in new figures showing violent crime soaring.
The days of women exerting a civilising influence in pubs may be fading, David Blunkett warns, as a result of the rise of female binge drinkers.

It is the rise of so-called "lager loutettes" which is prompting most concern. Blunkett, who met drinks industry representatives last month to discuss ways of discouraging binge drinking, said the number of women drinking over 'safe limits" of 21 units a week had risen from 14 to 33 per cent. While there was little evidence as yet that they were causing violence, pub culture was changing, he said.

"They may be the ones who countenance it rather than calm it," he said. "It is not chauvinistic to say the presence of women has often been a calming influence, in terms of young men starting to lay about each other."

Crime figures published this week are expected to show a sharp rise in "violence against the person", with the most serious crimes, including murder and homicide, to rise by 15 per cent and sexual offences rising by 5 per cent.

Blunkett launches a crackdown on anti-social behaviour tomorrow when he publishes the Home Office's five-year strategy on violent crime. This will outline ways to tackle insecurity at every level from neighbourhood loutishness to terror threats.

He said there was clear evidence people were drinking more and there was increasing intimidation. But he said: "It is chicken and egg - the more people feel threatened, the more they call on the forces of law and order and us to do something about it."

He said anti-social behaviour would only be tackled by building "respect" back into communities: "I think that has to be rooted back in parenting and the family - how you build that when you are nurturing children."

Sir John Stevens, the outgoing Metropolitan Police Commissioner, recently warned of packs of "feral children" in London - youngsters often raised in care, sexually and physically assaulted, and effectively bringing themselves up on the streets.

Blunkett's five-year plan will unveil a major funding boost for youth inclusion projects offering activities such as sports and mentoring sessions to teenagers in high-crime areas. Pilot projects have cut crime by more than 6 per cent, he said.

"What he (Stevens) describes as feral children are clearly children who are completely out of control," he said.

There will also be new powers for ordinary people to compel police to meet their priorities, targeted on rundown communities who feel abandoned by the state.

Through local forums, residents will be able to demand a police or other agency presence in problem areas, challenge policing priorities and order a snap inspection of services failing to come up to scratch. Communities will also be given performance "league tables", comparing their forces with others.

Chris Fox, chairman of the Association of Chief Police Officers, welcomed greater accountability, but said there had to be limits: "If you're democratically elected for Nuneaton then that's fine, but how do the drugs get there from outside and who runs the protection? There is a strategic element of policing that has to be dealt with."

Tory home affairs spokes-man David Davis said if Labour was worried about alcohol-fuelled violence it should not have moved to legalise all-day drinking. "Does he know for sure that people will drink less?" he added. "Labour has lost its grip on fighting crime."