Exploring ‘problematisations’ of alcohol intoxication in sentencing

Criminal courts sentence many crimes involving alcohol intoxication. However, how alcohol intoxication shapes blame and culpability is not straightforward, and how intoxication should influence sentencing is contested. This invites a critical analysis of sentencing guidelines to show how they construct and interpret the alcohol–crime relationship. Bacchi’s framework What’s the problem represented to be? was used to analyse how the ‘problem’ of alcohol intoxication in offending has been represented in English and Welsh sentencing guidelines. Analysis revealed the sentencing guidelines’ authority in legitimising an uplift in sentencing for intoxicated offenders and showed that they construct the ‘problem’ as involving consumers of alcohol whose behaviour is voluntary and irresponsible, and therefore more dangerous or blameworthy. Findings reveal prominent judicial ideals like objectivity, autonomy and freedom of choice, and demonstrate how these official representations of alcohol’s role in crime have entrenched simplistic narratives about the people involved. This is salient as other jurisdictions are increasingly developing guidelines to inform sentencing decisions in criminal courts.