Evidence of intoxication in Australian criminal courts: A complex variable with multiple effects

This article reports on the second stage of a national study of how theeffects of alcohol and other drugs are treated by criminal laws and thecriminal justice system. Based on a mixed methods analysis of more than300 appellate court decisions from all Australian jurisdictions handeddown in the period 2010–2014, we identify the multiple points at whichlegal significance is attached to evidence that the accused, the victimor a witness was ‘intoxicated’ at the time of the alleged commission of a criminal offence. Focusing on the rules and principles endorsed by appellate courts in relation to four key ‘sites’ of criminal justice decision making— the admissibility of police interviews, the credibility and reliability of witness testimony, adjudication on the criminal responsibility of the accused, and determination of sentence for convicted offenders —we show that the impact of intoxication on the enforcement of the criminal law is complex. There is no single characterisation that can account forthe multiple points at which intoxication may need to be assessed, and the divergent ways in which it can impact on adjudication. Depending on a range of site-specific and case-specific considerations, intoxication evidence may expand/contract the parameters of criminal responsibility,and it may yield higher or lower criminal penalties