Drunk British Women

The days of women quietly sipping a gin and bitter lemon in the pub while the men knocked back pints are long gone. Women are drinking more, and getting violent with it.

Kirsten Maile is bright, attractive and eloquent. She wants to study to be an underwater diving photographer. She is also on probation for ABH - actual bodily harm - after she rammed a bottle into a girl's face.

Nor is it the first time that she has lashed out while drunk. She has twice been charged with common assault, and claims to have "wrapped a girl's ponytail around my hand and smashed her face against a basin".


"It doesn't seem that big a deal to me. You see it on the TV, on the streets, loads of fights. Every time I have ever hit someone, I've been drunk. It's easier to lash out, harder to hold on."
She knows that it may just be a matter of time before she loses her rag again. And if she gets caught, she'll go to prison.

Dr Jon Cole, of Liverpool University's School of Psychology, says that while alcohol doesn't make people more aggressive, it stops us making sensible choices: "You make the easiest choice, which is often aggression."


VIOLENT WOMEN SURVEY
9% physically attacked by woman who seems drunk
41% seen woman who seems drunk attack someone else
60% say number of women getting drunk and aggressive is higher than five years ago
31% say it's about the same
ICM surveyed 1,129 people aged 18-34
In a survey for BBC Three's Bashing Booze Birds, almost one in 10 people aged 18 to 34 say they have been physically attacked by a drunk woman. And 41% say they have seen a woman who appears to be drunk attack someone else.
Kirsten knows alcohol triggers her short fuse, but believes there are other factors.

"I grew up watching people around me using alcohol as an escape route. There was aggression in the house; my father and his girlfriend physically fighting, constantly arguing. Me and my father, me and my mother arguing down the phone. One big argument."

Kirsten has now sought help for her problems with alcohol and aggression.

Binge Britain

Part of the problem is that Britons drink twice as much as in the 1950s, and are drinking more in single sittings. Among 18- to 24-year-olds, only one in four women and one in six men say they never binge, according to the Institute of Alcohol Studies. Among 20-something women, 60% of the alcohol they consume is in bouts of heavy drinking - more than six units a day.


Last month, the government launched a £4m campaign to stop binge and under-age drinking. Alcohol alters judgement and perception and can lead people to take risks with their health and safety that they would not normally consider.

Nicky O'Conner, of Cardiff, says alcohol makes her more confident - and more chippy. "If a girl looks at you, gives you a dirty look, you stick up for yourself - 'what's your problem?'"

Although there are no official figures on alcohol-related crime, it is estimated to cost £7.3bn a year. Criminologist Douglas Sharpe, a former police officer, says many violent offences occur close to licensed premises.

"We are constantly being told that crime is falling, and yet violent crime is rising and one of the reasons violent crime is rising is because of alcohol."

The Glasgow Centre for the Study of Violence sent its researchers out to monitor pub fights; women were involved in almost half of all the pub fights they observed.

According to medical research, testosterone - the hormone connected to male characteristics such as aggression and sex drive - rises in women by up to 50% when they get drunk. In men, it falls.
To test this theory, journalist Nicky Taylor got in a boxing ring sober, and after downing a bottle of wine. Before drinking, her main concern was not getting hurt (and keeping her bra straps in place). Drunk - and with her testosterone levels up 10% - she let fly, regardless of the consequences.

A woman's place

It is not just that more women are drinking more; the liquor industry is courting the female pound with a vengeance, designing drinks and venues specifically to appeal to women and their increasing disposable income.

The now ubiquitous All Bar One chain was among the first, opening in Sutton, south London, in 1994. Two women came up with the concept for the Mitchells and Butlers Brewery - they wanted somewhere they'd feel comfortable going on their own.

Today, the traditional boozer is an endangered species. Instead women flock to bars made-over with big windows, stylish sofas, chandeliers and posh loos. And to drink? Think pink. Rose dominates the wine list, and cocktails are the order of the day.

With more women in employment, there's money to spend on going out for a good time. But that good time can fast turn sour, as Nadia, a 25-year-old mother of one, can attest. She lost an eye when a drunk woman threw a pint glass at her. A two-inch shard punctured her eyeball.

Her attacker was sentenced to 18 months in prison, but has only served five. Nadia, meanwhile, has a glass eye and will have operations for the rest of her life. "I hate her. I just absolutely hate her," she says.