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Legal Aspects of Alcoholism and Other Addictions: Some Basic Conceptual Issues
Author(s) -
Fingarette Herbert
Publication year - 1981
Publication title -
british journal of addiction
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.424
H-Index - 193
eISSN - 1360-0443
pISSN - 0952-0481
DOI - 10.1111/j.1360-0443.1981.tb00217.x
Subject(s) - voluntariness , addiction , psychology , liability , component (thermodynamics) , legal psychology , social psychology , law , political science , psychiatry , physics , thermodynamics
Summary This article formulates a conceptual thesis. It is proposed that questions about the legal status of ‘alcoholics’ or other ‘addicts’ fall into two main types. Questions of Type 1 concern the individual's legal responsibility or liability regarding a particular act on a past occasion. Questions of Type 2 concern the characterization of patterns of addictive conduct over time, probabilities as to classes of addiction‐related acts. Answers to Type 1 questions rest ultimately on the ‘voluntariness’ of the act. ‘Voluntariness’ is a legal concept having a legal policy component as well as a psychological component. For understanding the psychological component, the structure of current scientific knowledge is a clear mismatch. Therefore related legal policy is controversy‐wracked. But for answering Type 2 questions, the structure of current knowledge is basically a good match. This overall analysis is the background for some legal policy suggestions.