Alcohol, a simple substance from the chemical point of view, has very complex effects on the human organism which are not well understood, yet, is massively consumed and has an enormous crime-causing potential – especially violent crime. Not even why some individuals react to alcohol by violence – socially dangerous behaviour - is really clear. In the overview work on the strength of so far known we try to at least partially explain the mechanism of the alcohol effects at the level of ion channels, secondary messengers, and affecting a dopamine release. Alcohol affecting the GABA and NMDA receptor activities is also mentioned. The relations amongst these systems which are involved in the “enhancement of alcohol effect” are far from the explanation. Relatively considerable part refers to the problem of pathological drunkenness where we know significantly less about the neurobiological background than about other clinical status connected with the alcohol use. Part of the article refers to the forensic classification of mainly violent – criminal – manifestation of individuals affected by alcohol to whom the experts diagnosed simple drunkenness sometimes related with occurrence of palimpsest, heavy drunkenness and pathological ebrietas - ebrietas pathica.

Key words: alcohol – violence – GABA – NMDA – simple drunkenness – palimpsest – heavy drunkenness – ebrietas pathica – forensic psychiatry