ABSTRACT
This chapter describes the overlap between alcoholism and criminal behaviour, and discusses the way in which society is at present responding to alcoholics who commit crimes. There is a conflict between society’s normal response to crime as a danger which should be detected, controlled and punished, and society’s desired response to alcoholism as a condition requiring treatment. Alcohol is used to diminish inhibition by many people who commit offences, and a significant proportion of prisoners report being drunk at the time of the offence. This may or may not mean that they are alcoholics, but there is a real legal problem if the offender was so drunk at the time of committing the offence that he did not know what he was doing. Prison is in fact particularly inappropriate for someone with an alcohol problem.
