Young women are most at risk because of the way they binge drink and get into fights with other drunk girls.

It is something Chaplain Lance Mergard and his volunteers are witnessing almost every time they patrol Brisbane's entertainment hotspots.

"The age range is from 18 years to late 20s," Chaplain Mergard said.

"Females reacting want to protect their male, or want to attack their male or partner [at] that point of time. If it's girl-on-girl it's often a girl has tried to cut in on their guy."

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The same scenes are being played out on the streets of cities and towns across Australia.

Often when they're not involved, young women are cheering on men to do the same.

Australian Institute of Criminology figures reveal the number of female assaults per 100,000 women jumped 49 per cent - from 125 to 186 - between 1996 and 2010.

That compares to an increase of just 18 per cent for men.

"What we've uncovered are fairly dramatic increases in rates of youth violence among females, so that is quite concerning," Professor Paul Mazerolle, Director of Queensland's Violence Research and Prevention Program at Griffith University, said.

"Men still have higher levels of more serious assaults than females. Female assault tends to be of a lower order, but it is still something we need to be serious about."

Professor Mazerolle also points out the figures could reflect police are now more likely to arrest and charge violent women than they were previously.

"Behaviour that might have historically been seen seen as a disturbance or ignored is being picked up as a lower level assault. Police responding to community concerns about young people - that will sweep up more young females in anti-social behaviour and violence," Professor Mazerolle said.

The footage of women fighting is like watching a horror movie for etiquette Queen June Dally-Watkins.

"It is so sad that young people are behaving like that," Dally-Watkins said

"We've always thought it was very bad to see young men over-drinking, getting drunk, beating each other up, behaving badly - and now to see young women doing it, it's really pathetic."

On Brisbane's streets, Chaplain Lance Mergard says women are not only being knocked out by punches, but heavy drinking as well.

"What we tend to see around the place is what i call 'extreme drinking', where they will drink a lot of alcohol in a short period of time," Chaplain Mergard said.

Out cold in the winter chill, the women are posing a new challenge to Chaplain Mergard and his volunteers.

"Where they can't care for themselves, we take duty of care. That requires us to try and find an appropriate way of getting them home," Chaplain Mergard said.

"Either calling mum or dad, or a friend. Sometimes it requires an ambulance to go to hospital, or even our own service is able to assist."