Drunken convictions fall by 75%
New figures released today show that the number of those convicted of or receiving a police caution for drunkenness has slumped by more 75% in the last 30 years.
Just 17,421 people were convicted of drunkenness in 2007, compared with 97,165 in 1981, the last year for directly comparable figures. The offences include being found drunk in a public place and 'drunkenness with aggravation', which included being drunk and disorderly and refusing to leave licensed premises.
The number of penalty notices for drunk and disorderly behaviour increased from 26,609 in 2004 to 46,996 by 2007, an increase of 77%. Only just over half of offenders paid up.
The number of those receiving either a conviction or a caution, meanwhile, fell by 76% cent from 97,890 in 1981 to 23,533 in 2007.
Professor Ian Gilmore, president of the Royal College of Physicians and chairman of the UK Alcohol Health Alliance, said: "This fall in convictions doesn't sit with what we can see on the streets of the inner cities every weekend night.
"So these changes are undoubtedly because of a change in policy. I think unfortunately, drunkenness has become socially acceptable, particularly among young people, in a way that it wasn't 30 years ago.
"Particularly women being drunk was something one just never saw in public places. There have been huge changes in attitude and it's something we have to address as a society."
