2024-07-16 03:45:06
Emmanuel is a 50-year-old truck driver. One of those whose entourage slips from fatigue and sometimes fear, they have “bad wine”. Emanuel has been an alcoholic since adolescence, his family has a sordid history of sexual violence, two of his parents were in prison for raping his sister, and he was placed in an institution. A life ruined by alcohol. “I’ve been drinking for thirty-seven years.”, he sighed and agreed to testify anonymously. In October 2023, in a fit of rage, he threw a chair at his daughter and insulted his wife. Gendarmes arrested him and the court in Beziers (Hérault) ordered six months of medical treatment in lieu of prosecution. “My past is eating away at me, alcohol is my escape, He said. But it makes me very naughty and I can’t stop drinking it. »
READ ALSO | Article reserved for our subscribers Domestic violence: ‘More than one in two femicide involves alcohol’
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For years, his wife tried to avoid family dinners because it was too risky, as well as dinners with friends where alcohol would have been part of the party and turned into a nightmare. Life is on a thread. “I’m always mean. That’s why I have no friends, I always become aggressive. » During this last violent incident, his daughter came up with the idea of recording him so he might regain consciousness. “I didn’t recognize myself. Listening to myself reset my brain. I stopped drinking from that point on. »
Emmanuel, 50, benefited from alternatives to prosecution following a domestic violence incident while under the influence of alcohol. April 26, 2024, to the Association for Mutual Aid and Social Reclassification (AERS) of Béziers, the organization that has supported him in his reconstruction journey.
SNine months of abstinence as a vulnerable first step. Sitting across from him, Anne Krugler, spokesperson for the Association for Mutual Aid and Social Reclassification (AERS), encouraged him while emphasizing the difficulty of recovering from drug addiction: “It is not easy to realize this, and the perpetrators often deny their responsibility. »
Sadly, this story is all too common in court life, where domestic violence, group fights or nightclub outings are brought to trial, with its direct victims and their collateral damage. “Alcohol-related violence is our daily life, the daily work of prosecutors’ offices who manage the consequences of police detention, the life of immediate court appearances, and the life of judges enforcing sentences.”, Beziers prosecutor Raphaël Balland points out the genesis of an unprecedented study on the role of addiction in violence.
“Astronomical” social and health costs
Of the more than eight hundred cases of intentional violence studied within the court’s jurisdiction, it appeared that in three-quarters the perpetrators were drinking, taking drugs or both. “The place alcohol and drugs play in this violence is inversely proportional to the place they play in the public debate. Prosecutors insist. When it comes to crime, we only look at the consequences and rarely focus on the root causes. »
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