Exploring the role of commercial actors and structures in contributing to sexual violence in live music venues.

Sexual violence is a significant public health issue, and increasing attention has focused on sexual violence in live music venues, particularly the social and environmental features that contribute to it. While research on the commercial determinants of health has expanded, it has not been applied to sexual violence. This study examines how commercial factors, including commercial practices and structures, contribute to sexual violence in live music venues. We draw on interviews with 25 staff and patrons from live music venues in the Northern Territory, Australia, conducted in late 2024. Participants were asked about barriers and facilitators to preventing sexual violence. We analysed interviews thematically first using an inductive approach, then deductively applying a commercial determinants of health framework to examine how commercial actors and structures might facilitate sexual violence. Commercial actors were seen to engage in market practices (e.g. exceeding capacity, overserving alcohol, understaffing) and non-market practices (e.g. symbolic engagement with prevention initiatives) that contributed to sexual violence. These practices occurred within systems that prioritized profit and produced a casualized workforce often ill-equipped to respond to sexual violence. Sexual violence was further reinforced by gendered power relations in venues, a reliance on prevention through self-regulation, and neoliberal norms that framed sexual violence as an issue of individual responsibility. Addressing commercial drivers through regulation offers actionable policy levers-although economic structures may constrain these efforts. We suggest greater attention to commercial determinants is both theoretically and politically valuable in sexual violence research across live music settings and other environments.