Empirical data for the purpose of multidimensional analysis of alcohol delinquency-related behaviour

With the aim of determining the differences, if any, between voluntarily admitted alcohol-dependent patients and those treated in a forensic hospital with regard to criminal behaviour caused by alcohol, a study was conducted within a clinical section to analyse 41 patients confined under the provisions of the German Penal Code (StGB, section 64) and 55 patients who were admitted voluntarily. There is virtually no difference in the patterns of delinquency of the two groups; plain theft, fraud, defalcation and damage of property are predominant. This however, does not apply to acts of killing, which were exclusively found in patients who were treated in a forensic hospital, the frequency of delinquency being predominant in the latter group. According to anamnesis, a comprehensive list of questions containing more than 400 items as well as a series of test-psychological investigations, a psychic profile is elaborated by means of significant data or showing a tendency towards significance. In accordance with the result of operationalised diagnostics, only 51.2 per cent of the patients of confinement showed a primary alcohol dependence. As far as the other patients of the group (who had been wrongly confined within the meaning of the law) were concerned, the predominant diagnosis was a disturbed personality with accompanying alcohol abuse, whereas in the group of voluntarily admitted patients the proportion of primary alcohol dependence was 81.8 per cent.