The Crisis of the Party
Abstract
In recent years, public discourse of ‘problematic’ and excessive alcohol consumption amongst young people has moved dramatically towards a crisis. This was captured by Australian federal government concerns with a binge-drinking epidemic, which resulted in a series of policy interventions such as the National Binge Drinking Strategy between 2008-2009 and 2011-2012, the National Binge Drinking Campaign in 2008-2010 and 70% taxation on ready-to drink or ‘alcopops’ in 2008. Recent state and territory government policies mirror this trend, introducing secondary supply legislation that makes it illegal for a non-guardian to supply alcohol to a person less than 18 years of age. South Australia is now the only state in Australia where the supply of alcohol to minors on private premises is not controlled by law. While significant research attention has been directed towards the issue of violence in the night-time economy, another domain of concern is the ‘uncontrolled’ party. This thesis defines an ‘out of control’ party as a violent, wild, unregulated and ungoverned event...