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Between the years 1964 and 1983, 59,226 blood samples with appropriate blood-alcohol concentrations (BAC greater than 0.1 g/kg) were investigated at the Institute for Forensic Medicine at the University of Tübingen. These originated from 47,416 different "culprits", of whom 38,851 (81.9%) were first offenders and 8,565 (18.1%) multiple offenders. The total number of crimes committed by the latter group reached as many as 13. There were fewer women amongst the recurring offenders, the maximum number of offences in this group was 4. The age of the multiple offenders at the time of their first brush with the law was lower than that of single culprits. Their blood-alcohol level at the first offence was similar to that of single offenders, however it increased slightly with each subsequent time. Homotropic traffic offenders were mainly only represented in the group with the lower crime rate. Most multiple offenders proved to be criminal delinquents who were frequently conspicuous not only for criminal--but also for criminal--and traffic violations. In about half the cases the time intervals between 2 offences was under 3 years.

Comparing 133 presumable rape victims who underwent blood sampling after the event with 2446 alcoholized female traffic offenders it was found that both groups had a delinquency maximum between midnight and 2 a. m. and a delinquency minimum between 6 a. m. and 6 p. m. Most of the rape victims, however, were approximately 5 years younger than the traffic offenders, most of whom were about 25 years old. The time intervals between blood sampling and the event were longer in the case of the rape victims (4 to 20 hours) whereas most traffic offenders underwent blood sampling 1 to 2 hours after the event. At comparable maxima of the distribution curves of blood alcohol concentration (between 1.5% and 2%) that of the rape victims showed a shift to higher values. This is also illustrated by the mean values of blood alcohol concentration at the time of the event: the blood alcohol concentration of the rape victims was 2.24% and thus 0.45% higher than that of the traffic offenders, who averaged only 1.97%. The reason for this is probably to be seen in the different modes of back computation. By assigning 38 offenders to 35 victims it was possible to set up and compare 35 pairs. Comparing the blood alcohol concentrations of all 35 pairs it was found that the blood of the victims contained on average 0.4% more ethanol than the blood of the offenders (1.41% vs. 1.01%).

A 48-year-old man died from extensive burns suffered especially on the upper part of the body during a dispute with his ex-wife, who had poured spirit or a spirit-water mixture over him. For initially unknown reasons, the man's clothing caught fire. Whereas the public prosecutor assumed that the woman had intentionally poured a larger amount of spirit over her ex-husband before setting fire to him, the defendant first claimed to have poured the rest of a water-spirit mixture left over from cleaning the windows over the man and that his clothing caught fire on lighting a cigarette. To clarify the course of events, fire tests with spirit in various dilutions were conducted, which showed that even with undiluted spirit a direct contact with the flame of at least 1 second is necessary to start a fire. There is no deflagration, if spirit is used as a fire accelerant. In the trial, the defendant made a confession and admitted to have poured a mixture of 75% spirit and 25% water over her ex-husband and set fire to his right sleeve with the intention to kill him.

We analysed the files of an Amts- and Landgericht from the years 1982/83. Among about 4000 cases we found 148 condemnations, in which sections 20/21 StGB were discussed. Each offence included 207 variables. 63 cases were left to be evaluated: 10 cases with section 20, 43 cases with section 21, 10 cases with refused section 21. Most of the delinquents lived alone, drank much alcohol very often, were socially unadaptable, previously convicted, unemployed and little qualified. Due to lack of findings of facts and diverging testimonies of psychic findings we found no significant correlation between level of blood alcohol concentration, psychic findings and degree of decreased condemnability.