A STUDY about the role of pub bouncers in the modern nightlife scene has won a Durham research team a national award.

Durham University criminologist Professor Dick Hobbs led an investigation into the pub and club policing role of door staff.

The team's research paper, Door Lore, the Art and Economics of Intimidation, explored the working practices, occupational culture, regulation and training of bouncers, and the threat of violence they are often faced with in licensed premises.

But the paper also became a study for the rapidly changing night-time economy of Britain's town and city centres.

Leading researcher Prof Hobbs wrote the paper with his research team of Philip Hadfield, Stuart Lister and Simon Winlow.

All three were post-graduate research students at Durham, although Mr Lister is now at Leeds University, while Mr Winlow is lecturing at Teesside University.

Originally from Sunderland, Mr Winlow, a former Manchester DJ, became a bouncer for research purposes, while the others underwent door staff training.

They interviewed male and female bouncers from across the country. Other sources of information were council officers, town centre managers, pub and club owners, licensees and professionals who train door staff. Prof Hobbs' team also accompanied police patrols.

The final paper was published in the British Journal of Criminology and has now won the team the Radzinowicz Memorial Prize, awarded by the national Centre for Crime and Justice Studies.

It has also attracted widespread interest in the field, resulting in the research paper forming the basis of a recently published book, Bouncers.

Prof Hobbs said: "The boom in the night-time economy in our towns and cities over the last ten to 15 years has been almost unregulated and has resulted in a significant shift in British society and the drinking culture.

"One in five new jobs being created is in the night-time economy. The police resources are not cut out to deal with the numbers now coming into our towns and cities.

"It means door personnel are relied on to deal with problems in licensed premises as police resources are stretched coping with incidents on the street between pubs and clubs."

The team now plans to conduct further research into the night-time economy, on a celebratory night out in Durham, spending the cash award from the memorial prize.