SCRAM Blog

More than one in four adults in the North East drink at levels that put them at risk and 40% of crime is linked to alcohol use. Because of this, local PCCs are calling on the government to introduce justice reforms to help reduce alcohol use and address alcohol-related crime.

Concern about alcohol-related crime in the UK is high, and according to new polling, 91% of the public support the use of sobriety tagging for those who commit crimes under the influence of alcohol which can help punish and rehabilitate clients.

With more than 60% of violent crime in Scotland involving alcohol, new justice reforms are in place with efforts to address the underlying causes of a person’s offending. Over 90% of the Scottish population supports the use of sobriety tags as a sentencing requirement, which would act as both a punitive and rehabilitative measure.

Research has found that 73% of those who perpetrate domestic abuse were drinking at the time of the assault. SCRAM Systems is proud to have contributed to the UK debate on domestic abuse this month by sending a formal response to the Home Office Consultation on the use of sobriety tags to address criminal behaviour.

In a first-of-its-kind pilot for the U.K., the borough of Blackburn with Darwen in northern England is using SCRAM Continuous Alcohol Monitoring to achieve better outcomes among alcohol dependent service users, as well as in family law cases and domestic abuse cases.

In 2014, London launched the United Kingdom’s first compulsory “alcohol tag” trial in an attempt to curb alcohol-involved crime in four of the city’s most impacted boroughs. Based on the success of that initial trial, the Mayor of London’s Office for Policing and Crime (MOPAC) and the Ministry of Justice have announced that the program and SCRAM Continuous Alcohol Monitoring (SCRAM CAM) will be used throughout the city starting in April.