Alcohol Consumption among Sexual Offenders in the Context of Analysis of Forensic Psychiatric Assessments.

Abstract

Introduction: The association of alcohol use with committing sexual offences is well established. However, there are still gaps in knowledge about the mechanisms which lead to alcohol overuse and related sexual violence occurring under the influence of alcohol among this group of perpetrators. Goal: The goal of this paper is to describe characteristics of perpetrators of sexual offences with regards to their self-declared alcohol use status: “overusing” – declaring overusing alcohol, “not-overusing” – declaring not overusing alcohol, and “abstaining” – declaring abstinence from alcohol. Material and Methods: Material for this study consisted of 180 individual forensic psychiatric reports issued by the experts from the Mental Health Clinic at the 10th Military Clinical Hospital in Bydgoszcz. The reports were reviewed by the study authors. Relevant data from was extracted using the survey tool developed for the purpose of this study: “Survey of Factors Determining Sexual Criminal Behaviour” Results: Statistically significant associations between several studied variables were noted and presented in table format, see tables 1-3 for details. Conclusions: Disinhibiting effect of alcohol on sexual offending is associated with coexisting personality disorders and organic personality disorders. Perpetrators of sexual offences overusing alcohol are characterized by poor levels of social functioning and personal history of being raised in dysfunctional families with alcohol problems.