Criminality among female alcoholics

Abstract

The proband group consisted of 71 female alcoholics subjected to compulsory treatment by the Temperance Board in Malmö. 38 probands were recorded in the Penal Register. For a period from year 20 before to year 9 after the first compulsory treatment, 85 offences were committed. During the same period, less than one recorded criminal offence was expected, according to an age- and calendar year specific risk table for Swedish women. In relation to the expected incidence, the observed was not particularly high at the beginning of the period. From year 12 up to year 2 before the intervention, it increased to an extremely high level where it remained. The distribution of the crimes according to nature agreed with that valid for Swedish women in general. The average age at the crime debut was conspicuously high, about 30 years. Despite, this, the first criminal offence, as also the first gonorrhoeal infection, was an early sociomedical symptom; not until later did public assistance and conviction for drunkenness usually arise.