Drunk women hit the mean streets

A highly intoxicated woman at a bus stop is helped by a friend as she is sick all over the ground. Picture: Gordon McComiskie Source: The Daily Telegraph

YOUNG women are getting drunker than ever on Sydney's streets.

More than 80 per cent of all sexual offences, including rape and indecent assault, involve either the victim or the offender being affected by alcohol, an analysis of police data for Sydney shows.

More women in the city are coming to police attention as being well affected or seriously affected by alcohol - the equivalent of 10 to 20 drinks, or two bottles of wine.

In NSW, more than a quarter of those who come to police attention as "seriously affected" by drink are women.

Superintendent Mark Walton of City Central local area command - the largest in the Sydney's CBD - and the NSW Police Force spokesman on alcohol-related crime, said it was obvious every Friday and Saturday night.

"Women are drinking to excess. When women are seriously or well affected by alcohol they are more likely to be involved in violent incidents," Supt Walton said.

Involved, he said, as a victim or an offender.

"The one thing that keeps me up at night is the vulnerability of women, when they are well affected by alcohol, to sex assault," he said.

"They are more likely to be preyed on. That certainly doesn't excuse the actions of perpetrators. It's just a fact.

"This is not to apportion blame to the victim, it is just to increase the awareness that alcohol use makes you more vulnerable and we need mates to look after each other."

A day after a Daily Telegraph special report revealed the rate of crime involving women was soaring, police data showed the number of females identified as "persons of interest" where alcohol was tagged as an associated factor had jumped from 17.6 per cent in 2007 to 18.9 per cent last year.

It now averages 2700 women a year in the city.

Supt Walton said the increasing representation of women reflected society's growing acceptance of equality in our drinking culture. "Certainly in the last 50 years it's become more culturally acceptable for women to drink late into the night and we are becoming more and more desensitised to that behaviour," he said.

He said aggressive marketing by alcohol companies was a factor, with boutique beers and "the lolly water" drinks such as alcopops being pitched at young women.

"You've only got to look at the bottle shop and bar shelves to see what is sold at the late traders - they taste very sweet and are easy to drink, but these are high-alcohol content drinks," he said.

But tougher enforcement by police and greater compliance by publicans and nightclub owners have helped cut the number of alcohol-related assaults since 2008.

Supt Walton attributed that to the "enough is enough" attitude led by Commissioner Andrew Scipione and supported by hotels and clubs.

Ivy nightclub is now the only licensed premises in the city remaining on the NSW list of violent venues. It is rated level 1, meaning 19 or more violent incidents a year, and has a 2am lockout.

In 2005, police began recording details of all crime where alcohol was an associated factor - including how much the person had drunk and where they had consumed their last drink. The Daily Telegraph's analysis of police data for all alcohol-related crime in the four CBD commands - City Central, Kings Cross, The Rocks and Surry Hills - showed incidents rose from 2002 to peak in 2008, but have since declined or stabilised.

Bureau of Crime Statistics and Research data supported the findings but also revealed an increase in women charged with offensive conduct or offensive language. This month the National Drug and Alcohol Research Centre found people now typically have their first drink aged just over 14 - three years younger than the female Baby Boomers.

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