Full av skuld? En studie av patologiska rus betydelse i svensk rätt

Sammanfattning: The term pathological intoxication is strange. Originally, the pathological intoxication is a diagnosis that was included in Swedish psychiatry. The diagnosis of pathological intoxication is excluded in the diagnostic system, Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders-IV which is used in Swedish psychiatry today. Due to this, the term pathological intoxication has no relevance in the psychiatric sense of the word. Pathological intoxication is still used as a term in Swedish law. In the case NJA 2001 p. 899, the term was defined as:"an alcohol-triggered psychotic state with hallucinations." The legal understanding of the term pathological intoxication ought to be a short term psychotic state triggered by alcohol consumption. In Swedish history there are examples of people committing terrible crimes under the influence of short-term alcohol-induced psychoses. The people who committed the crimes are acting in a way which is not normal, the offender is left with only hazy or nonexistent memories when the intoxication subsides. Short term alcohol-induced psychoses are included in the criterion severe mental disorder in Chapter 30, § 6 of the Swedish Penal Code. The rule provides a presumption against imprisonment for persons who have committed illegal acts during a severe mental disorder. In practice, however, unlawful acts committed under the influence of short-term alcohol-induced psychoses ought to break the presumption. This means that Swedish courts has legal support for punishing offenders who committed illegal acts under the influence of short term alcohol-induced psychoses. One can wonder whether people who are psychotic at the time of a criminal act can be considered to have guilt to their deeds. Guilt implies a measure of control over the conduct that the guilt concerns. The person who is held liable for an act must have chosen their acts, in order to impose the person guilt. It is questionable if people whom committed criminal acts during a short-term alcohol-induced psychosis really have chosen their actions, and thus if they have guilt to them. If a system punishes people who are not at fault for their actions, it violates basic principles of criminal law. Most legal systems include a requirement of accountability in order to impose criminal liability. That a person is accountable, means that the person can be attributed to his/her deeds. Swedish law, however, includes no such requirement. The committee who created the report SOU 2012:17 suggests that a requirement of accountability shall be implemented in Swedish law. The report includes a draft for a new bill which would mean that Swedish criminal law would become more logically structured. The proposal would also mean that less people who acted under short-term alcohol-induced psychosis escapes a penalty.