Abstract
This study describes staff experiences of problems associated with the serving of alcohol in Bergen, Norway. The aim is to find out how licensed premises deal with the various adverse consequences of alcohol use, particularly violence. It also addresses the question of how these problems could be countered.
A questionnaire was mailed to all 250 licensed premises in Bergen. The response rate was 70 per cent. In addition, data were collected in interviews with 18 managers.
The themes addressed in the study include the profile of the licensed premises, security systems, the serving of alcohol, restrictions applied, and violence. Data were additionally obtained on attitudes to the prevailing situation and on proposals regarding ways of countering current problems.
Data interpretation and analysis is based primarily on a classification of the total sample of licensed premises into different categories (restaurants, cafés, bars/pubs, discos and dance halls, social clubs). In some cases the analysis is based on data regarding the mean age of the clientele.
The different types of licensed premises vary widely in terms of their security systems and safety. The results show that a large proportion of staff in these premises have personal experiences of violent episodes in the workplace. Four in ten personnel in pubs and bars indicated they had been threatened by customers during the past 12 months. At the same time almost half of all respondents and nine in ten employees in discos and dance halls have seen violence or aggressive episodes. One in four have experienced such situations during the past three months. One-quarter of the respondents indicated they had had to call in the police in connection with violent incidents; this was most common in the case of discos and dance halls.
During the past 12 months every other respondent had once or more often suspected clients of drug use. Dividing the licensed premises into categories by the mean age of their clientele, these suspicions were three times more common in places frequented by younger clients (under 24 years) than in those frequented by older clients (over 35 years).
According to the results there is considerable interest among restaurant employees in further training in this field. Over half of them would be interested in training courses that have to do with legislation, dealing with customers, intoxicating substances, and conflict resolution. Almost half of the respondents have their own ideas and suggestions as to how aggressive or other undesirable behaviour could be reduced.