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

Durham University criminologist Professor Dick Hobbs led the 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 often contend with in licensed premises.

But it also looked at the rapidly changing night-time economy of Britain's town and city centres.

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

All were postgraduate research students at Durham University.

Mr Lister is now at Leeds University, while Mr Winlow is lecturing at Teesside University.

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

They interviewed male and female bouncers 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 night patrols during their investigation.

The final paper was published in the British Journal of Criminology and has now won them 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 it forming the basis of a recently published book, called Bouncers.

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