ABSTRACT
In English law, voluntary intoxication is only a defence to crimes of ‘specific’, rather than ‘basic’, intent.25 This approach has frequently been criticised, not least on the basis that it results in the conviction of defendants who did not actually have the mens rea normally associated with basic intent crimes. What is of interest for feminists, however, is the fact that almost all the cases considered at appellate level involve offences of violence, frequently sexual violence, committed, almost invariably, by men.26
