Theories of Intoxicated Crime

Abstract

This chapter considers whether academic research and theory has undermined the confident ascription of criminal responsibility to intoxicated offenders. It is suggested that any concern that academic knowledge erodes the principle of free will is bolstered more by the deterministic expression of alcohol theory than by the substance of its research; and that academic theory about the alcohol—crime relationship often rests on commonsense assumptions. The chapter examines firstly the alcohol—crime association; secondly, academic interpretations of offenders’ theories of intoxicated crime; and thirdly, the major emphases of academic theories of the alcohol—crime relationship.