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Dark, crowded venues increase risks of sexual harm in Geelong nightlife
Media release
4 December 2025
Experts are calling for tighter liquor licencing regulations as new research reveals a worrying incidence of harmful sexual behaviour inside Geelong’s nightlife venues.
The research team from Deakin University’s School of Psychology found unwanted behaviours such as groping, leering and unsolicited sexual comments were more common in venues where the space was dark, noisy and tightly packed.
Professor Peter Miller said strong leadership was needed at government level to ensure patrons at local venues could enjoy a night out feeling safe from sexual harm.
‘We need to see real action from government, the police and the venues, to prioritise the safety of patrons,’ Professor Miller said.
Nightlife safety demands system-level change
‘We’ve worked with great venues and police, but without system level changes, all that work ultimately goes to waste.
‘Dark, crowded spaces inside nightlife venues leave patrons particularly vulnerable to unwanted touching and sexual comments.
‘Venues can improve safety by increasing lighting, limiting the number of patrons so spaces, particularly dance floors, aren’t crammed with people, as well as increasing the visibility of security staff.
‘To ensure this happens, we need tougher regulations around liquor licencing to improve safety in the long term.’
The research team interviewed more than 230 people aged between 18 and 65, including equal numbers of women and men, as they left Geelong nightlife venues on Saturday nights between December 2022 and February 2023. The median age of the patrons was 21 and all 18 venues were in the city of Geelong.
Half the women and almost one in three of the men reported some form of sexual harm with behaviour ranging from being leered at and sexually propositioned to touching, groping or forcibly kissed.
School of Psychology PhD candidate Kira Button said there was limited research looking at how venues might contribute to sexual harms because of the way they manage lighting, noise and crowds.
‘Many of the young women we spoke to felt this kind of behaviour was just normal and something they had to accept if they wanted to go out,’ Ms Button said.
‘During venue observations, security staff were often hard to locate, either because there were too few of them or because their dark uniforms made them difficult to see in low lighting.
‘We asked patrons to rate venue brightness on a scale from one to ten. For each one-point increase in perceived brightness, the odds of experiencing sexual harm fell by 27%.’
A second study by the team found that only around a third of Australian nightlife patrons reported their experience of sexual harassment to someone at the venue, like a security guard.
‘The most common reason for not reporting was the belief that this type of unwanted sexual behaviour was normal in nightclubs and bars, and venue staff and security would not respond appropriately to the report,’ Ms Button said.