Ethanol intoxication is a commonly known risk factor of a crime, especially in the case of those who drank alcohol within 24 hours before perpetrating a homicide or the victim’s severe body injury. This study is an attempt to characterize the perpetrators of a homicide or the victim’s severe body injury during ethanol intoxication. The examined group consisted of 90 suspects in the public prosecutor’s investigation for an offence which threatened health or life, qualified pursuant to the penal code as a homicide, attempted homicide, or severe body injury. The subjects underwent a sex-week forensic psychiatry observation during 2004-2008 at the Forensic Psychiatry Unit in High Security Prison No 2 in Lodz. Analysed retrospectively was the medical documentation collected during the forensic psychiatry observation, including available medical documentation and categorical forensic psychiatry opinions issued by two expert psychiatrists. According to the collected materials, it was established that most perpetrators (78% of subjects) who during ethanol intoxication committed a homicide or severe body injury were men aged 18-75 years (the subjects’ mean age reached 42 years), unemployed, divorced or unmarried, who did not undergo or discontinued the military service, had been punished with a court sentence, or manifested aggressive behaviours in the past.

ethanol intoxication, homicide, severe body injury, forensic psychiatry observation, criminal accountability