Responsibility for crime and injury when drunk.
The aim of this paper is to highlight the complexity in the connection between alcohol intoxication and responsibility for crime from a multidisciplinary approach comprising medical, legal and criminological perspectives. There is no doubt that there is a connection between violent behaviour and alcohol intoxication. However, several investigations show that alcohol heightens aggressiveness only when the drunken person is provoked. A case which may serve as a model when discussing legal responsibility for acts carried out when drunk is outlined. Ethical considerations are discussed and exemplified concerning the motive, as well as the principles, of punishing an intoxicated perpetrator. However, there are no definite solutions concerning what is right or wrong, and each reader will have his own opinion, which may well differ from that of the author.
Bergman
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Department of Clinical Neuroscience and Family Medicine, Karolinska Institute, Huddinge Hospital, Sweden.
D000328:Adult; D000435:Alcoholic Intoxication / Q000523:psychology*; D003415:Crime; D004992:Ethics, Medical; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D012941:Social Responsibility; D014947:Wounds and Injuries / Q000523:psychology*