Using insider accounts, this title presents the underlying causes and meanings of violence. Interviews with the police, the perpetrators, and the victims of violence depict the complex emotions that surround the perpetration and resolution of crime. It shows that a new approach is needed to deal with nihilism and escalating hostility. 'Violent Night fizzes and crackles on every page as a picture emerges of the insecurity, instrumentalism, competition and anxiety that now characterises what it means to be young in Britain. It is a powerful antidote to any lingering Romantic notions about the meaning and rate of violence in our society. I cannot recommend it more highly.'Professor David Wilson, Centre for Criminological Research and Practice, University of Central England, Birmingham'Violent Night lifts the lid off Britain's night-time economy, exposing a brutal world of excessive alcohol consumption and hedonistic self-expression. It is a book that will make uncomfortable reading for those who dreamt of a sophisticated nocturnal cafe society, but are now waking up to the reality of city centres awash with so-called 'binge drinkers' and a rising tide of random violence.'Keith Hayward, University of Kent'Winlow and Hall provide a strikingly original theoretical argument about the impact of the shift fro