Beat Kümin is a Professor of Early Modern European History at the University of Warwick and co-founder of the Drinking Studies Network.

Responding to news that British police are to go on patrol in Magaluf and Ibiza, he said: “International police co-operation to curb drinking excess has to be welcomed. As researchers in the field have known for a long time, responses to alcohol are not simply determined by physiological processes, but shaped by cultural norms and practices.

“Officers coming from the country of some of the worst offenders – i.e. the UK – should be able to spot and manage problematic behaviour by Brits much more effectively than Spanish colleagues with limited knowledge of the drinking culture over here. Bobbies will be more likely to choose the right language and, if need be, degree of restraint, while signalling that crimes committed on holiday might have repercussions back home. Furthermore, the experience of sending police officers along to football matches overseas has proved encouraging.

“Yet more important, however, is the self-policing and informal social control of the revellers themselves; the realisation that drinking to oblivion is rarely conducive to having a good time, quite apart from the associated dangers to personal health and safety. This, of course, is a rather more ambitious and longer-term target.”

Note to Editors:

Prof Beat Kumin is available for interviews. We have a Globelynx camera for TV interviews and an ISDN line for radio broadcasts.

Contact Lee Page, Communications Manager, Press and Policy Office, The University of Warwick. Tel: +44 (0)2476 574 255, Mob: +44 (0)7920 531 221. Email: l dot page at warwick dot ac dot uk.

Contact:

Lee Page

Communications Manager, University of Warwick

Tel: +44 (0)2476 574 255

Mob: +44 (0)7920 531 221

Email: l dot page at warwick dot ac dot uk