The night-time economy poses one of the biggest crime problems in Britain today. This book highlights precisely how and why this threat developed at the time it did. It charts the rise of a 'night-time high street' and highlights the struggle that is occurring over the way in which such nightlife areas develop. This unique and hard-hitting analysis of social control in bars and clubs, courtroom battles between local communities and the pub trade, and street-level policing gets to the heart of the political debates on binge-drinking and anti-social behavior.