2024-07-16 03:45:10
Emmanuel is a 50 year old truck driver. One of the men of the entourage is tired, don’t be afraid, that’s them “bad beer”. Emmanuel has been drinking since he was young, there is a history of sexual violence in his family, both of his parents are in prison for the rape of his sister, he was put in a cell. A life undermined by alcohol. “I’ve been drinking for twenty-seven years”, he sighed, agreeing to bear witness. In October 2023, in a fit of rage, he threw a chair at his daughter and insulted his wife. The gendarmes arrested him, the court of Béziers (Hérault) ordered six months of treatment as an alternative to prosecution. “All I’ve been through is consuming me, my relief is alcohol, he said. But it makes me very naughty and when I have a drink I can’t stop. »
For years, his wife managed to avoid family meals, which were very dangerous, and dinners with friends, where alcohol would have been part of the celebration and then a nightmare. Life on the sea. “I always make mistakes. This is also why I don’t have friends, I always end up being angry. » During the last scene of violence, his daughter suggested to record him so that he could become clean. “I don’t recognize myself. Listening to my own words resets my brain. I have stopped drinking since then. »
Six months of abstinence, as a fragile first step. Sitting opposite him, Anne Krugler, a speaker from the Association for Aid Communication and Social Services (AERS), encouraged him, while emphasizing the difficulty of getting rid of addictions: “The advice is not easy, the investigators often deny their responsibility. »
The tragedy of this story is commonplace in court life, where we judge domestic violence, collective fights or night outings, with their direct victims and their collateral damage. “Violence linked to alcohol in our daily lives, of the presence of the public prosecutor’s office that manages the consequences of police custody, of immediate appearances, of judges imposing sentences “, noted the attorney general of Béziers, Raphaël Balland, at the origin of an unprecedented study on the role of addictions in violent behavior.
“Astronomical” social and health costs
In more than eight hundred cases of intentional violence investigated by court order, it appears that, in a third of the cases, the perpetrators were under the influence of alcohol, drugs or both. “The role of alcohol and drugs in this violence is the opposite of that in public debates, insisted the prosecutor. When it comes to injustice, we only look at the results, we pay little attention to the root causes. »
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