Beyond Binder: Determination of Criminal Responsibility while in a State of Drunkenness by Japanese Courts

Abstract

In Japan, unlike many other countries, forensic psychiatry has traditionally used Binder’s criterion for determining the criminal responsibility of drunken offenders. We investigated 50 judgment documents taken from District courts and analyzed them for the implementation of Binder’s criterion and other factors, to determine criminal responsibility. Only 20 documents explicitly mentioned Binder’s criterion. Decisions were based not only on Binder’s criterion, but also additional factors related to the crime, which could contribute to diminished responsibility. Logistic regression analysis showed that decisions of diminished criminal responsibility were related to factors such as, “memory loss”, “incomprehensible motive”, and “heterogeneous character of the perpetrator”. These results suggest that Japanese District courts do not adhere as strictly to Binder’s criterion as originally thought by Japanese forensic psychiatrists. The courts also use what would be deemed “common sense standards” when determining criminal responsibility.