Crime, Punishment and the Drinking Offender

Download or read book Crime, Punishment and the Drinking Offender written by Judith Rumgay and published by Springer. This book was released on 1998-12-13 with total page 244 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Judith Rumgay explores theoretical explanations of the alcohol-crime relationship, critically analyses their empirical support in research, and develops a perspective based on 'expectancy theory', which suggests that alcohol facilitates offending less through its real pharmacological effects than through the variety of common sense beliefs about those effects which are embedded in everyday life. An empirical study of magistrates' sentencing decisions illuminates the diversity of explanations for crime based on intoxication, through the appeal to common sense beliefs about alcohol's effects.