Article

General deterrence effects of U.S. statutory DUI fine and jail penalties: Long-term follow-up in 32 states

October 2007
Accident Analysis & Prevention 39(5):982-94

DOI:10.1016/j.aap.2007.01.003

Source
PubMed

Authors:

Alexander C Wagenaar

Emory University

Mildred M Maldonado-Molina

University of Florida

Show all 6 authorsHide

We examined effects of state statutory changes in DUI fine or jail penalties for firsttime offenders from 1976 to 2002. A quasi-experimental time-series design was used (n=324 monthly observations). Four outcome measures of drivers involved in alcohol-related fatal crashes are: single-vehicle nighttime, low BAC (0.01-0.07g/dl), medium BAC (0.08-0.14g/dl), high BAC (>/=0.15g/dl). All analyses of BAC outcomes included multiple imputation procedures for cases with missing data. Comparison series of non-alcohol-related crashes were included to efficiently control for effects of other factors. Statistical models include state-specific Box-Jenkins ARIMA models, and pooled general linear mixed models. Twenty-six states implemented mandatory minimum fine policies and 18 states implemented mandatory minimum jail penalties. Estimated effects varied widely from state to state. Using variance weighted meta-analysis methods to aggregate results across states, mandatory fine policies are associated with an average reduction in fatal crash involvement by drivers with BAC>/=0.08g/dl of 8% (averaging 13 per state per year). Mandatory minimum jail policies are associated with a decline in single-vehicle nighttime fatal crash involvement of 6% (averaging 5 per state per year), and a decline in low-BAC cases of 9% (averaging 3 per state per year). No significant effects were observed for the other outcome measures. The overall pattern of results suggests a possible effect of mandatory fine policies in some states, but little effect of mandatory jail policies.

Sanction changes and drunk-driving injuries/deaths in Taiwan

Article

Aug 2017

Driving under the influence (DUI) is one of the major causes of traffic accidents in Taiwan. About 5% of injuries involve DUI, and nearly 20% of deaths are due to alcohol-related crashes. During early 2006 to the end of 2014, the authorities in Taiwan increased the severity of fine and jail penalties for DUI offenders three times. At the same time, the monthly drunk-driving injures decreased nearly 40% and the monthly alcohol-related traffic death dropped more than 80%. In this paper, we examine the effects of sanction changes on the reduction of drunk-driving casualties during this period. We find that drunk-driving injuries and deaths significantly dropped after the statutory changes. The reduction was immediate following all sanction changes that raised the maximum fines or jail terms of DUI offenders. Policies that increased the maximum jail terms of DUI offenders seem to have a better gradual effect on the reduction of alcohol-related traffic casualties. Although increased sanctions are found to be effective in reducing drunk-driving casualties, we need more future research to examine the policy-to-perception and the policy-to-behavior links.

Cops and/or courts? A heterogeneous panel Granger-causality analysis of DUI in California

Article

Mar 2017
Int J Soc Econ

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to examine the interaction of enforcement and adjudication for general deterrence of drunk-driving. The authors present a triangular feedback model between three domains: police, courts and drunk-driving events. The authors’ deductive approach imposes no structural assumptions beyond the core of general deterrence theory. Design/methodology/approach Using a largely untapped data set for California’s 58 counties from 1990 to 2010, the authors estimate a series of heterogeneous panel Granger non-causality tests. This empirically based evidence is re-organized per the proposed triangular feedback model to objectively categorize local criminal justice systems as active, responsive or reactive (with respect to drunk-driving). Findings Our results suggest that state-level analyses obscure useful variations that empirical panel methods can now handle. The authors provide evidence that research based on empirically derived groupings, rather than inductively based preconceptions, is key to understanding enforcement and compliance. The authors provide a less confounded picture of the relationship between drunk-driving enforcement and adjudication. Research limitations/implications Our study addresses one offense for a particular state in the USA. It is an exploratory analysis. This analytical and empirical approach is new. Practical implications Our approach imposes very few a priori assumptions and requires a minimum of data series to be executed. The method can be broadly applied to a range of topics and observational units. Social implications The authors aim to expand identification of local systems’ effectiveness (or not) and mechanisms of for general deterrence of drunk-driving. The offense is one that can be committed easily and unintentionally; it does not presume anomie. The authors address general communities, not anomalies. Knowing how enforcement and compliance operate is essential to an array of behavioral externalities. Originality/value This is a new empirically based approach for analyzing social systems. It is a marriage of new macroeconomic time-series techniques with an old question, most often addressed by microeconomic research. This study uses an underutilized data source to construct a unique panel data set.

Observed fishery regulatory violations in Namibia and their possible implications for the sustainable management of fishery resources

Article

May 2023

Alcohol: No Ordinary Commodity: Research and public policy

Book

Full-text available

Jan 2023

This book is about alcohol policy: why it is needed, how it is made, and the impact it has on health and well-being. It is written for both policymakers and alcohol scientists, as well as the many other people interested in bridging the gap between research and policy. It begins with a global review of epidemiological evidence showing why alcohol is not an ordinary commodity, and it ends with the conclusion that alcohol policies implemented within a public health agenda are needed to reduce the enormous burden of harm it causes. The core of the book is a critical review of the cumulative scientific evidence in seven general areas of alcohol policy: pricing and taxation; regulating the physical availability of alcohol; modifying the environment in which drinking occurs; drink-driving countermeasures; marketing restrictions; primary prevention programmes in schools and other settings; and treatment and early intervention services. The final chapters discuss the current state of alcohol policy in different parts of the world, the detrimental role of the alcohol industry, and the need for both national and global alcohol policies that are evidence-based, effective, and coordinated. This book shows that opportunities for evidence-based alcohol policies that better serve the public good are clearer than ever before, as a result of accumulating knowledge on which strategies work best.

Drinking and driving: prevention and countermeasures

Chapter

Full-text available

Nov 2022

Effects of stricter drunk-driving laws on alcohol-related road traffic death, injury, and crash rates in South Korea: A synthetic counterfactual approach using Bayesian structural time-series models

Article

Dec 2021
ACCIDENT ANAL PREV

Sang Jun Eun

In December 2018, new drunk-driving laws were enacted in Korea to impose stricter penalties and standards for driving under the influence of alcohol. This study aimed to estimate the effects of stricter drunk-driving laws on alcohol-related road traffic death, injury, and crash rates in Korea. Using police-reported traffic accident data and registered vehicle data from 2013 to 2020, monthly road traffic outcome rates were calculated: the response series involved alcohol-related rates and the non-equivalent control series involved total and non-alcohol-related rates. Based on a controlled interrupted time-series design using Bayesian structural time-series models, effects of the laws on alcohol-related road traffic outcome rates were evaluated. After implementation of these laws, the alcohol-related road traffic crash rate decreased by 14.3% (95% credible interval [CrI] −26.8% to −1.9%), alcohol-related road traffic injury rate by 17.6% (95% CrI −31.6% to −3.8%), and alcohol-related minor road traffic injury rate by 20.2% (95% CrI –32.4% to −7.7%). Alcohol-related road traffic death and severe injury rates also decreased more than the declining trends in the pre-period, but reduced non-significantly by 15.0% (95% CrI −47.2% to 17.3%) and 9.9% (95% CrI –33.9% to 14.5%), respectively. The mixed effectiveness of Korea’s new drunk-driving laws on alcohol-related road traffic outcomes suggests that additional strategies are necessary to consistently and effectively reduce alcohol-related road traffic outcomes. More research is needed on ways to enhance the effectiveness of drunk-driving laws.

Does Prison Deter Drunk-Drivers?

Article

Full-text available

Dec 2021
J QUANT CRIMINOL

Objective To examine the specific deterrent effect of prison on driving under the influence of alcohol (DUI) recidivism. Method The study outcomes were the probabilities of DUI re-offending over 6 months, 24 months and 5 years ‘free time’ (i.e. time not spent in custody). The comparison group consisted of offenders convicted of DUI offending who received a suspended sentence of imprisonment. The effect of imprisonment was examined in a series of 2SLS models; employing an extensive set of controls (age, gender, race, remoteness of residence, socioeconomic status, legal representation, number of concurrent offences, DUI blood alcohol range, number of prior court appearances, prior penalties) and variation in the judicial proclivity to imprison convicted drunk drive offenders as an instrument to identify the effect of prison on DUI re-offending. Results Our free-time analyses reveal no evidence that imprisonment reduces the risk of DUI recidivism. Separate analyses for first-time DUI offenders revealed a slight (5%) reduction in re-offending over 24 months free time but no effect over 5 years. Conclusion We conclude that the funds currently spent on imprisoning DUI offenders could be more fruitfully be invested in measures that show more promise in reducing DUI recidivism.

Effects of the penalty mechanism against traffic violations in China: A joint frailty model of recurrent violations and a terminal accident

Article

Jun 2020
ACCIDENT ANAL PREV

A penalty mechanism is usually considered as a powerful means to reduce the probability of traffic violations and accidents by encouraging drivers to comply with traffic regulations. Penalty point and fine strategies are often used in parallel. Different degrees of penalty points and/or fines are imposed according to the specific violation behavior of drivers. However, the question of whether each penalty produces positive effects in maintaining a driver’s compliance with traffic regulations and promoting the driver’s traffic safety is still unanswered. This study focuses on quantifying the effects of penalty point and fine strategies on violation recurrences and accident occurrences of drivers. A frailty survival analysis method is conducted to jointly model the occurrence of violation and accident events of each individual. The frailty term in the model is leveraged to address the unobserved heterogeneity among drivers. Personal characteristics and penalty status are also incorporated as covariates in the model. Actual violation and accident data from a province in China are utilized to calibrate the model. The results show that penalty point strategy exhibits deterrent and binding effects; however, penalty fine strategy does not show the expected effects. The number of years of driving is also a significant factor that influences violation recurrence and accident occurrence. The present study provides insightful information for improving violation penalty mechanisms.

Will the vehicle restriction policy maintain a long-term deterrent effect?

Article

Full-text available

Mar 2020
IET INTELL TRANSP SY

As one of the efficient travel demand management approaches, vehicle restriction policy has been widely implemented worldwide. However, non‐compliant behaviours occur and undermine such a policy. Maintaining a long‐term deterrent effect on individuals is crucial. This study conducts an empirical analysis to investigate whether the vehicle restriction policy can prevent non‐compliant behaviours in the long run. On the basis of a newly implemented vehicle restriction policy, i.e. odd‐and‐even policy in Langfang, China, compliance duration that represents the period from the beginning of the policy to the first rule‐breaking behaviour of an individual is investigated by applying survival analyses. Moreover, this study proves the existence of inertia in rule‐breaking behaviour. Findings reveal that a considerable proportion of vehicles would commit their first offence within a short period of time after the policy coming into force. Inertia would further increase the frequency of rule‐breaking behaviour. Thus, vehicle restriction policy can hardly maintain a long‐term deterrent effect. This study provides implications for understanding the deterrent effect of transportation policies and offers insights into policy improvement.

The impact of alcohol policies on alcohol-attributable diseases in Taiwan—A population-based study

Article

Sep 2017
DRUG ALCOHOL DEPEN

Background: Taiwan has some of the strictest alcohol-related driving laws in the world. However, its laws continue to be toughened to reduce the ever-increasing social cost of alcohol-related harm. Aim: This study assumes that alcohol-related driving laws show a spillover effect such that behavioral changes originally meant to apply behind the wheel come to affect drinking behavior in other contexts. The effects of alcohol driving laws and taxes on alcohol-related morbidity are assessed; incidence rates of alcohol-attributable diseases (AAD) serve as our measure of morbidity. Methods: Monthly incidence rates of alcohol-attributable diseases were calculated with data from the National Health Insurance Research Database (NHIRD) from 1996 to 2011. These rates were then submitted to intervention analyses using Seasonal Autoregressive Integrated Moving Average models (ARIMA) with multivariate adaptive regression splines (MARS). ARIMA is well-suited to time series analysis while MARS helps fit the regression model to the cubic curvature form of the irregular AAD incidence rates of hospitalization (AIRH). Results: Alcoholic liver disease, alcohol abuse and dependence syndrome, and alcohol psychoses were the most common AADs in Taiwan. Compared to women, men had a higher incidence of AADs and their AIRH were more responsive to changes in the laws governing permissible blood alcohol. The adoption of tougher blood alcohol content (BAC) laws had significant effects on AADs, controlling for overall consumption of alcoholic beverages. Conclusion: Blood alcohol level laws and alcohol taxation effectively reduced alcohol-attributable morbidities with the exception of alcohol dependence and abuse, a disease to which middle-aged, lower income people are particularly susceptible. Attention should be focused on this cohort to protect this vulnerable population.

Operating a Motor Vehicle after Marijuana Use: Perspectives from People who use High-Potency Marijuana

Article

Aug 2017

Background: With advancing marijuana legalization in the United States, a primary concern is the possible increase in consequences relating to marijuana driving impairment, especially among people who use high potency marijuana (i.e., extracts). In this study we assessed the risk perception and experiences of driving under the influence of marijuana by investigating people who use extracts. Methods: Participants from two studies were queried about driving after using marijuana. In Study 1, phone interviews (n = 19) were conducted with people who use extracts. In Study 2, we conducted a nationwide survey of people who use extracts (n = 174) recruited via an online existing panel. Responses to marijuana and driving-related questions were qualitatively coded for themes (e.g. riskiness, engagement in behavior) developed by the research team. Results: Prominent themes identified in Study #1 suggested a belief that driving risk following marijuana use is dependent on the individual (i.e., response/tolerance) or the amount/type of marijuana consumed. This theme was corroborated by Study #2 participants. Those who perceived no or minimal risk from driving following marijuana use were more likely to report, engagement in driving following extracts use. Conclusions: More research is needed to understand how marijuana, especially in its concentrated form, impacts driving ability in order to develop appropriate and scientifically sound regulations. Such research could subsequently fill the need to improve and more widely disseminate prevention messages on marijuana use and driving risks.

Drunk driving: a secondary analysis of factors associated with driving under the influence of alcohol in Jamaica

Article

Full-text available

Jul 2023

Objectives To determine the prevalence of alcohol use patterns, sociodemographic factors and risk of alcohol dependence among vehicle drivers in Jamaica. Design A secondary data analysis. Setting This study was conducted using the Jamaica National Drug Prevalence Survey 2016 dataset. Participants This included 1060 vehicle drivers derived from the population sample of 4623. The participants from each household were randomly selected as the respondent for the survey. Primary and secondary outcome measures Alcohol use and dependence were measured using the Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test questionnaire. Driving under the influence of alcohol (DUIA) was assessed by questions regarding its use in the past 12 months. The analysis involved the use of Pearson’s χ ² test and logistic regression. Results 75% of Jamaicans reported lifetime alcohol use. Approximately 65% of drivers indicated that they currently drink alcohol. 18% of drivers who currently drink alcohol admitted to DUIA. Reportedly, 54.5% of these drivers were alcohol binge drinkers, with 41.5% also driving under the influence of cannabis. The bivariate analysis demonstrated that DUIA was higher among Christian participants and those who worked in non-machine operator jobs (p=0.002 and p=0.008, respectively). Vehicle drivers altogether and drivers who drive under the influence of alcohol had significant associations with hazardous drinking (p=0.011 and p<0.001, respectively). Logistic regressions highlighted drivers 34 years and under (p=0.012), male drivers (p=0.002) and the head of the household (p=0.050) were 1.82, 3.30 and 1.86 times more likely, respectively, to report driving under the influence of alcohol in the past year. Conclusions The prevalence of alcohol use among Jamaica’s population and vehicle drivers is high. That one in five drivers, who currently consume alcohol, also admits to driving under the influence suggests the urgent need for mitigation strategies and legislative action as part of a preventative effort to reduce drunk driving.

SWOV-factsheet

Chapter

Full-text available

Jan 2023

Charles Goldenbeld

Implementation of Road Safety Countermeasures in Four Cities to Reduce the Harmful Effects of Alcohol: A Progress Report

Article

Jan 2022

Revised road traffic safety law and years of life lost due to traffic deaths in China, 2002–2019

Article

Oct 2021
ACCIDENT ANAL PREV

Legal intervention is a powerful tool to reduce road traffic injuries (RTIs). China amended the Road Traffic Safety Law in 2011, but the impact of amended law on traffic crash deaths is still unknown. In this study, we conducted an interrupted time series analysis and examined years of life lost (YLLs) per 100,000 population as the assessment indicator to evaluate the association of road traffic safety law and traffic crash mortality. Annual YLLs data due to traffic deaths from 2002 to 2019 in China were obtained from the Global Burden of Disease (GBD) 2019. After implementation of the revised law, the average level of total YLLs per 100,000 population due to traffic deaths decreased from 1133.14 to 848.87, and the slope of annual YLLs per 100,000 population decreased by 30.11 (95% CI: 22.46, 37.75), indicating a steeper downward trend. The revised traffic law was associated with YLLs reduction due to traffic deaths for males, females, all age groups, pedestrians, motor vehicle users, and other road users, as well as traffic deaths attributed to alcohol use and tobacco use. These findings suggested that the revised Road Traffic Safety Law improved road safety by decreasing YLLs due to traffic deaths in China. However, the burden of RTIs is still heavy and efforts to further improve traffic laws and the adoption of other interventions are urgently needed.

Implementation of Road Safety Countermeasures in Four Cities to Reduce the Harmful Effects of Alcohol: A Progress Report

Preprint

Full-text available

Jul 2021

Background Beginning in 2016, the Anheuser-Busch InBev Foundation (ABIF) provided funding to six pilot cities to implement evidence-based interventions to reduce the harmful use of alcohol and its deleterious consequences such as alcohol-impaired driving. The cities receiving funding are Alexandra Township in Johannesburg, South Africa; Brasilia, Brazil; Columbus, Ohio, United States; Jiangshan, China; Leuven, Belgium; and Zacatecas, Mexico. Methods Four of the city pilot coalitions are implementing a wide array of interventions to deter driving under the influence (DUI). Columbus made efforts to get more judges to apply Ohio’s alcohol ignition interlock law and implemented and evaluated a Safe Rides program. Brasilia increased the number of roadside checkpoints and planned an educational campaign about the dangers of impaired driving to be delivered at bars by firefighters and paramedics. Alexandra expanded and upgraded the Metropolitan Police Department’s Alcohol Evidence Center (AEC). In Zacatecas, among other interventions, a new Driving While Intoxicated (DWI) facility is being constructed to expedite case processing and adjudication. Results In Columbus, the evaluation of the Safe Rides program showed an estimated reduction of 2.9 impaired driving crashes but also an average increase of 0.4 alcoholic drink per program participant. There was a reduction in harmful alcohol use of .02% in 2017 associated with the Safe Rides campaign, but with no carryover to 2018. In Brasilia, the combined effect of the road safety measures and other factors resulted in a 35% decrease in traffic deaths between 2016 and 2019. In Alexandra, there were 46 fatal crashes over the Easter weekend in 2018, 25 fatal crashes in 2019 (46% reduction), and 3 fatal crashes in 2020 (88% reduction from 2019). To date, Zacatecas’ road safety measures have not yet been evaluated. Conclusions Full implementation of the city pilots’ planned road safety interventions has been slow, and presently the COVID-19 pandemic has halted most operations. Interim evaluations can be conducted once a pilot city’s countermeasures are fully implemented and have operated for at least one year. ABIF should continue to donate funds to increase or enhance evidence-based DUI enforcement strategies while also implementing awareness campaigns to inform the public and enhance the deterrent effect of those efforts.

Evaluating the relationship between binge drinking rates and a replicable measure of U.S. state alcohol policy environments

Article

Full-text available

Jun 2019
PLOS ONE

Excessive alcohol consumption contributes significantly to premature mortality, injuries and morbidity, and a range of U.S. state policies have been shown to reduce these behaviors. Monitoring state alcohol policy environments is essential, but methodologically challenging given that new laws may be passed (or repealed) each year, resulting in considerable variation across states. Existing measures have not been made public or have only a single year available. We develop a new replicable measure, the state alcohol policy score, for each state and year 2004-2009, that captures the essential features of a state's evidence-based alcohol policies. We evaluate its similarity to two existing alcohol policy measures and validate it by replicating findings from a previous study that used one of those measures to assess its relationship with several binge drinking outcomes. Estimates of the association between one-year lagged state alcohol policy scores and state binge drinking outcomes, obtained from the 2005-2010 Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System surveys (n = 440,951, 2010), were produced using Generalized Linear Models that controlled for state and individual-level co-variates, with fixed effects for year and region. We find a 10-percentage point increase in the state alcohol policy score was associated with a 9% lower odds of binge drinking (aOR = 0.91, 95% CI 0.89, 0.92; N = 1,992,086), a result consistent for men, women and for most age and race subgroups. We find that gender gaps in binge drinking behaviors narrowed in states with higher state alcohol policy scores. These results were nearly identical to those found in other studies using different scores obtained with the aid of expert opinions. We conclude that the score developed here is a valid measure that can be readily updated for monitoring and evaluating the variation and impact of state alcohol policies and make available our state scores for the years of the study.

Differences in traffic violations and at-fault crashes between license suspension and revocation

Article

Full-text available

May 2011
ACCIDENT ANAL PREV

Upon conviction for particular traffic offenses, drivers can have their licenses revoked. Drivers who receive license revocation have an opportunity to apply for a sentence reduction, and some of those who apply receive a reduced sanction — license suspension. There may be differences between drivers whose license was revoked as originally sentenced and drivers who received the reduced sanction of license suspension with regard to traffic violations and crashes after driving privileges are restored. This study verified the differences during the follow-up periods of 6, 12, and 18 months using analysis of covariance and the t-test with stratified samples based on the police profiles of approximately 154,000 drivers in South Korea. The study found that drivers in the group whose license had been suspended committed traffic violations and caused traffic crashes less often for all time periods than those whose license had been revoked. However, omitted factors such as the attitude of suspended drivers and exposure to traffic violations and crashes (e.g., driving frequency after license reinstatement), are likely to affect the findings; thus, caution should be exercised when the findings are referenced for policy implications.

Rijden onder invloed van alcohol. Factsheet.

Chapter

Full-text available

Jul 2018

Charles Goldenbeld

Antidémarreur éthylométrique et conduite avec les facultés affaiblies : efficacité des programmes et recommandations pour en maximiser l'impact

Technical Report

Full-text available

May 2018

Messages clés  La conduite avec les facultés affaiblies par l’alcool est la première cause de décès sur les routes du Québec.  Le pourcentage de conducteurs décédés avec une alcoolémie supérieure à la limite permise stagne autour de 30 % depuis le début des années 2000.  Une synthèse systématique a été menée afin d’estimer l’effet des programmes d’antidémarreur éthylométrique sur la conduite avec les facultés affaiblies et les collisions. Les principaux résultats sont les suivants :  La participation à un programme d’antidémarreur éthylométrique réduit significativement le risque de récidive, tant chez les contrevenants primaires que chez les récidivistes.  Une fois que l’antidémarreur éthylométrique est retiré du véhicule, le risque de récidive revient à un niveau comparable à celui des participants du groupe témoin. Cet effet est indépendant des critères d’admission (ex. : avoir purgé une partie de la période d’interdiction de conduire) ou autres mesures (ex. : traitements, suivis médicaux ou programmes éducatifs) ajoutés au programme.  En raison du nombre insuffisant d’études, il est impossible de conclure avec certitude quant à l’effet de l’antidémarreur éthylométrique sur le risque de collision.  Une seule évaluation a été menée sur une population de non-contrevenants. Il est donc impossible de conclure quant à l’effet de l’antidémarreur éthylométrique sur ce type de population.  Afin de maximiser l’effet préventif de l’antidémarreur éthylométrique, ce dernier devrait être offert à un nombre plus important de contrevenants de l’alcool au volant. Plus précisément, l’antidémarreur éthylométrique devrait être offert de façon systématique dès une première infraction et devrait être imposé à vie aux récidivistes.  Éventuellement, l’antidémarreur éthylométrique devrait devenir un équipement standard sur tous les véhicules automobiles. À cet effet, des projets pilotes pourraient être réalisés au sein de flottes de véhicules publics et commerciaux.

Lives saved by laws and regulations that resulted from the Bloomberg road safety program

Article

Feb 2018

Objective: To estimate lives saved during 2008-2023 by traffic safety laws passed in six developing countries while participating in the Bloomberg Road Safety Program (BRSP). Methods: BRSP-funded local staff identified relevant laws and described enforcement to the study team. We analyzed road crash death estimates for 2004-2013 from the Global Burden of Disease and projected estimates absent intervention forward to 2023. We amalgamated developing country and US literature to estimate crash death reductions by country resulting from laws governing drink driving, motorcycle helmets, safety belt use, and traffic fines. Results: BRSP helped win approval of traffic safety laws in Brazil, China, Kenya, Mexico, Turkey, and Vietnam. In 2008-2013, those laws saved an estimated 19,000 lives. Many laws only took effect in 2014. The laws will save an estimated 90,000 lives in 2014-2023. Of the 109,000 lives saved, drink driving laws will account for 84%, increased motorcyclist protection for 13%, increased fines and penalty points for 2%, and safety belt usage mandates for 1%. Drink driving reductions in China will account for 56% of the savings and reduced drink driving and motorcycling deaths in Vietnam for 35%. The savings in China will result from a narrow intervention with just 4% estimated effectiveness against drink driving deaths. As a percentage of deaths anticipated without BRSP effort, the largest reductions will be 11% in Vietnam and 5% in Kenya. Conclusions: Viewed as a public health measure, improving traffic safety provided large health gains in developing nations.

New Evidence on the Causal Impact of Traffic Safety Laws on Drunk Driving and Traffic Fatalities

Article

Jan 2017

In the United States, about 28 lives are lost daily in motor vehicle accidents that involve an alcohol-impaired driver. While most states have enacted traffic-safety laws to address this phenomena, little consensus exists on the causal impact of these laws in reducing drunk-driving fatalities. This paper exploits quasi-random variation in state-level laws to estimate the causal effect of select traffic laws on the frequency of fatal accidents involving a drunk driver. This is identified from the discontinuities in policy treatments among homogeneous contiguous counties that are separated by a shared state border. This approach addresses the econometric issues created due to spatial heterogeneity that may have biased several studies in the literature. The results shows that laws restricting alcohol use for young drivers and open container laws are the most effective in reducing drunk driving fatalities. Laws increasing the cost of driving under the influence, such as pigovian taxes and harsh DUI penalties, were also found to be effective tools in reducing drunk-driving fatalities. Using these estimated coefficients, the simulation suggests that if these laws were adopted as federal mandates they could have saved about 24% of drunk-driving motor vehicle crashes.

New Evidence on the Causal Impact of Traffic Safety Laws on Drunk Driving and Traffic Fatalities

Working Paper

Nov 2017

Making the Case for Laws that Improve Health: A Framework for Public Health Law Research

Article

Jan 2010

The Association between Regional Environmental Factors and Road Trauma Rates: A Geospatial Analysis of 10 Years of Road Traffic Crashes in British Columbia, Canada

Article

Full-text available

Apr 2016
PLOS ONE

Background: British Columbia, Canada is a geographically large jurisdiction with varied environmental and socio-cultural contexts. This cross-sectional study examined variation in motor vehicle crash rates across 100 police patrols to investigate the association of crashes with key explanatory factors. Methods: Eleven crash outcomes (total crashes, injury crashes, fatal crashes, speed related fatal crashes, total fatalities, single-vehicle night-time crashes, rear-end collisions, and collisions involving heavy vehicles, pedestrians, cyclists, or motorcyclists) were identified from police collision reports and insurance claims and mapped to police patrols. Six potential explanatory factors (intensity of traffic law enforcement, speed limits, climate, remoteness, socio-economic factors, and alcohol consumption) were also mapped to police patrols. We then studied the association between crashes and explanatory factors using negative binomial models with crash count per patrol as the response variable and explanatory factors as covariates. Results: Between 2003 and 2012 there were 1,434,239 insurance claim collisions, 386,326 police reported crashes, and 3,404 fatal crashes. Across police patrols, there was marked variation in per capita crash rate and in potential explanatory factors. Several factors were associated with crash rates. Percent roads with speed limits ≤ 60 km/hr was positively associated with total crashes, injury crashes, rear end collisions, and collisions involving pedestrians, cyclists, and heavy vehicles; and negatively associated with single vehicle night-time crashes, fatal crashes, fatal speeding crashes, and total fatalities. Higher winter temperature was associated with lower rates of overall collisions, single vehicle night-time collisions, collisions involving heavy vehicles, and total fatalities. Lower socio-economic status was associated with higher rates of injury collisions, pedestrian collisions, fatal speeding collisions, and fatal collisions. Regions with dedicated traffic officers had fewer fatal crashes and fewer fatal speed related crashes but more rear end crashes and more crashes involving cyclists or pedestrians. The number of traffic citations per 1000 drivers was positively associated with total crashes, fatal crashes, total fatalities, fatal speeding crashes, injury crashes, single vehicle night-time crashes, and heavy vehicle crashes. Possible explanations for these associations are discussed. Conclusions: There is wide variation in per capita rates of motor vehicle crashes across BC police patrols. Some variation is explained by factors such as climate, road type, remoteness, socioeconomic variables, and enforcement intensity. The ability of explanatory factors to predict crash rates would be improved if considered with local traffic volume by all travel modes.

Evaluating the Impact of Criminalizing Drunk Driving on Road-Traffic Injuries in Guangzhou, China: A Time-Series Study

Article

Full-text available

Mar 2016
J EPIDEMIOL

Background: Road-traffic injury (RTI) is a major public-health concern worldwide. However, the effectiveness of laws criminalizing drunk driving on the improvement of road safety in China is not known. Methods: We collected daily aggregate data on RTIs from the Guangzhou First-Aid Service Command Center from 2009 to 2012. We performed an interrupted time-series analysis to evaluate the change in daily RTIs before (January 1, 2009, to April 30, 2011) and after (May 1, 2011, to December 31, 2012) the criminalization of drunk driving. We evaluated the impact of the intervention on RTIs using the overdispersed generalized additive model after adjusting for temporal trends, seasonality, day of the week, and holidays. Daytime/Nighttime RTIs, alcoholism, and non-traffic injuries were analyzed as comparison groups using the same model. Results: From January 1, 2009, to December 31, 2012, we identified a total of 54 887 RTIs. The standardized daily number of RTIs was almost stable in the pre-intervention period but decreased gradually in the post-intervention period. After the intervention, the standardized daily RTIs decreased 9.6% (95% confidence interval [CI], 6.5%-12.8%). There were similar decreases for the daily daytime and nighttime RTIs. In contrast, the standardized daily cases of alcoholism increased 38.8% (95% CI, 35.1%-42.4%), and daily non-traffic injuries increased 3.6% (95% CI, 1.4%-5.8%). Conclusions: This time-series study provides scientific evidence suggesting that the criminalization of drunk driving from May 1, 2011, may have led to moderate reductions in RTIs in Guangzhou, China.

Quasi-Experimental Research Designs

Article

Full-text available

Feb 2012

Bruce A. Thyer

Quasi-experimental research designs are the most widely used research approach employed to evaluate the outcomes of social work programs and policies. This new volume describes the logic, design, and conduct of the range of such designs, encompassing pre-experiments, quasi-experiments making use of a control or comparison group, and time-series designs. An introductory chapter describes the valuable role these types of studies have played in social work, going back to the 1930s, and continuing to the present. Subsequent chapters describe the major features of individual quasi-experimental designs, the types of questions they are capable of answering, and their strengths and limitations. Each discussion of these designs presented in the abstract is subsequently illustrated with descriptions of real examples of their use as published in the social work literature and related fields. By linking the discussion of quasi-experimental designs in the abstract to actual applications to evaluate the outcomes of social services, the usefulness and vitality of these research methods comes alive to the reader. While this volume could be used as a research textbook, it will also have great value to practitioners seeking a greater conceptual understanding of the quasi-experimental studies they frequently read about in the social work literature. Human service professionals planning to undertake a program evaluation of their own agency's services will find this book of immense help in understanding the steps and actions needed to adopt a quasi-experimental strategy. It is usually the case that ethical and pragmatic considerations preclude the use of randomly assigning social work clients to experimental and comparative treatment conditions, and in such instances, the practicality of employing a quasi-experimental method becomes an excellent alternative.

Social penalty promotes cooperation in a cooperative society

Article

Full-text available

Aug 2015

Why cooperation is well developed in human society is an unsolved question in biological and human sciences. Vast studies in game theory have revealed that in non-cooperative games selfish behavior generally dominates over cooperation and cooperation can be evolved only under very limited conditions. These studies ask the origin of cooperation; whether cooperation can evolve in a group of selfish individuals. In this paper, instead of asking the origin of cooperation, we consider the enhancement of cooperation in a small already cooperative society. We ask whether cooperative behavior is further promoted in a small cooperative society in which social penalty is devised. We analyze hawk-dove game and prisoner's dilemma introducing social penalty. We then expand it for non-cooperative games in general. The results indicate that cooperation is universally favored if penalty is further imposed. We discuss the current result in terms of the moral, laws, rules and regulations in a society, e.g., criminology and traffic violation.

Drunk driving policies and breath test refusal in Taiwan

Article

Jul 2023
Traffic Inj Prev

Objective: Driving under the influence (DUI) is one of the major causes of traffic crashes in Taiwan, leading to huge medical expenditures and human capital loss. Although the authorities have enacted several policies to reduce drunk driving, most penalties are based on drunk drivers' alcohol levels. According to Taiwan regulations, drivers could pay a fine to refuse the breath test if they are not involved in a traffic collision, and there is no clear evidence showing that they are DUI. Therefore, increased sanctions for DUI may lead to increased breath test refusals. If breath tests for drunk driving could be refused with little or no punishments for drivers, then the detection of behavioral impairment would weaken, and the deterrent effect of DUI punishment would be limited. Method: This research uses interrupted time-series analysis (ITSA) to examine how policy reforms from 2007 to 2020 affected driver's breath refusal rate in Taiwan. Results: We find that said reforms that exclusively increase the punishment of DUI offenders did raise the refusal rate immediately and persistently, suggesting that more drunk drivers would refuse a breath test to avoid more severe DUI punishment. Policy reforms that increase penalties for drivers refusing to take breath tests may instantly lower the refusal rate, but the long-term effects are contingent upon the DUI punishment. Conclusions: It appears that drunk drivers could still decide on breath test refusal to avoid a DUI conviction if the punishment for refusing the test is less severe than that for DUI. Aggravating penalties for refusing breath tests would decrease the refusal rate and help reinforce DUI's deterrent effect.

Crime Prevention: Approaches, Practices, and Evaluations

Book

Dec 2022

Steven P. Lab

Are state minimum jail laws associated with less frequent drunk-driving?

Article

Sep 2022

Objectives The current study investigated associations between minimum jail sentences included in state DUI laws and self-reported drunk-driving in the US. Scant existing research has been conducted on this topic. The current study is the first to use Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS) data to investigate associations between minimum jail sentences and frequency of self-reported drunk-driving among adults who report drunk-driving. Methods 2020 BRFSS data were used. Analyses were limited to participants aged 18 years and older who reported at least one episode of drunk-driving during the past 30-days. Participants missing data on age, gender, race, income, binge-drinking, or state of residence were excluded from analyses. The final sample size was 3,732. Websites from official state legislatures and/or data from state motor vehicle departments were used to gather current information on DUI minimum jail penalties. A dichotomous variable was created that categorized all 50 states and Washington D.C. as either (i) having a minimum jail sentence for first time DUI offense or (ii) having no minimum jail sentence for first time DUI offense. Multivariable negative binomial regression analyses were conducted using SAS® v9.4. The dependent variable was the number of self-reported drunk-driving episodes. Results Among the sample of adults who reported drunk-driving, residents of states with no minimum jail sentence for a first-time DUI offense had a 32% higher incidence rate of drunk-driving episodes [RR = 1.32,95% CI:0.98–1.77] compared to their counterparts residing in states with a minimum jail sentence for first time DUI offenses. Similar findings were observed in multiple sensitivity analyses conducted. Conclusion There was a marginally significant [p = 0.07] higher incidence rate of drunk-driving episodes among residents of states with no minimum jail sentence compared to those in states with a minimum jail sentence for the first time DUI. This was the first study to use BRFSS 2020 data to investigate this association and only among participants who self-reported drunk-driving. We therefore provide an important contribution to the literature on this association by using the most up to date data and among a valid sample of drunk drivers. Further studies that provide stronger causal inference are needed.

Alcohol-Related Crash Trends

Technical Report

Full-text available

Aug 2022

The consumption of any amount of alcohol impairs people’s driving ability, increasing the risk and severity of crashes. This research addresses a knowledge gap around recent trends in alcohol-related crashes and what insights the underlying data can reveal. It focuses in particular on exploring alcohol-related crash trends following the 2014 change in legislation reducing alcohol limits for drivers aged 20 years and over. The research aimed to examine how ‘fit for purpose’ alcohol-related crash data is and to study trends in such crashes over the past 10 years and their connection with other factors.

Recidivism prevention for impaired driving: Longitudinal 5-year outcomes from Quebec's severity-based intervention assignment program

Article

Aug 2022
J SUBST ABUSE TREAT

Introduction Driving while impaired by alcohol (DWI) is a persistent problem. Tailoring intervention modality to client risk and needs (i.e., risk/needs) is posited to both reduce recidivism more efficiently than uniform approaches and circumvent over- or undertreatment. DWI drivers in Quebec must participate in a severity-based intervention assignment program to be re-licensed, but like most tailoring programs it has yet to undergo systematic scrutiny. The current longitudinal cohort study tests two main hypotheses underpinning this approach: 1) drivers classified at higher recidivism risk based on their arrest characteristics (DWIR) show poorer outcomes over up to 5-years postassessment compared to drivers classified at lower risk (DWIF); and 2) for both DWIR and DWIF groups, assignment of drivers with greater risk/needs to intensive intervention (II) will be advantageous for reducing recidivism risk compared to assignment into brief intervention (BI) for those with lower risk/needs. Methods Drivers who entered the program from 2012 to 2016 were followed to the end of 2018 (N = 37,612). Survival analysis examined the predictive validity of the initial classification into DWIR or DWIF groups for documented recidivism over a follow-up of up to 5 years. Logistic regression discontinuity evaluated the relative outcomes of drivers who were assigned to either BI or II. The study explored interaction effects between classification and intervention assignment with age and sex. Results In line with the hypothesis, the average hazard of recidivism was 58 % greater in DWIR drivers compared to DWIF drivers. In both DWIF and DWIR drivers, assignment of drivers with greater risk/needs to II is associated with reduced recidivism compared to assignment of drivers with lower risk/needs to BI, with 57 % and 35 % decreased probability of recidivism, respectively. Younger age was more strongly associated with recidivism risk in DWIF drivers than in DWIR drivers. Conclusions The current study found that Quebec's severity-based intervention assignment approach accurately identifies DWI drivers who: i) by their arrest characteristics pose a greater risk for recidivism, which may require expeditious exposure to preventative countermeasures; and ii) as a function of their greater risk/needs, these individuals benefit from assignment to more intensive intervention to mitigate their recidivism risk.

Do alcohol policies affect everyone equally? An assessment of the effects of state policies on education-related patterns of alcohol use, 2011-2019

Article

Aug 2022
DRUG ALCOHOL DEPEN

Background Public policies are a powerful tool to change behaviors that may harm population health, but little is known about how state alcohol policies affect different population groups. This study assesses the effects of a comprehensive measure of the state alcohol regulatory environment (the State Alcohol Policy Score or SAPS) on heavy drinking—a risk factor for premature death—on different population groups, defined by levels of educational attainment, then by race/ethnicity, and sex. Methods We pool each state’s Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance Survey (BRFSS) 2011-2019 and use robust Poisson regression analyses that control for individual-level factors, state-level factors (1 year lagged SAPS score for each state, state fixed effects), and year fixed effects to assess the relationship between SAPS and heavy drinking behaviors by education group. Interaction terms test whether education moderates the relationship by race/ethnicity and gender. Results SAPS scores increased 2010-2018, but substantial gaps persist between states. A 10% increase in a state’s alcohol policy score is associated with a 2% lower prevalence in current drinking (APR=0.97, 95% CI=0.97-0.97, p<.001) although not for those with a high school education or less. A 10% increase in the SAPS was associated with a 3% lower prevalence of heavy drinking; interaction terms in models reveal that a 10% increase in the SAPS was associated with a lower prevalence of heavy drinking among those with less than a college education. Conclusion Narrowing gaps in alcohol policies between states may reduce heavy drinking among those with lower educational attainment.

Can't drive, I'm drunk – Exploring factors influencing the intention to drink and drive among Indian drivers

Article

Jul 2022

The crash risk of drivers increases significantly while driving under the influence of alcohol. However, the drivers' intention to drink and drive has not been explored yet in the context of a developing country like India. The present study applied an extended version of the theory of planned behaviour (TPB) to investigate the psychosocial predictors of drunk driving intentions of Indian drivers. 252 drivers participated in a self-reported survey designed for the study. Apart from the standard TPB components (attitudes, subjective norms, and perceived behavioural control), the survey also captured the extension measures such as risk perceptions, moral norms, traffic fatalism, sensation-seeking, conformity tendency, past engagement in drunk driving, crash history and driver demographics. The standard TPB model was successful in explaining 68.6% of the variance in the intention to drink and drive. The attitudes displayed the strongest influence on the intention (β = 0.696, p < 0.001), followed by perceived behavioural control (β = 0.180, p < 0.001); whereas subjective norms showed a moderate significance in influencing the intention (β = 0.062, p < 0.1). Among the extension variables, past behaviour showed the strongest influence on the intention to drink and drive (β = 0.123, p < 0.05), followed by sensation-seeking (β = 0.080, p < 0.05) and traffic fatalism (β = 0.072, p < 0.1). The extended TPB model explained 72% of the variance in the intention to drink and drive. The study findings can assist in the development of strategies/interventions to reduce drunk driving incidences. An earlier version of the paper was presented at the TRB 101st Annual Meeting, Washington, D. C., 2022.

Article

Oct 2021
ACCIDENT ANAL PREV

In the United States, about 28 lives are lost daily in motor vehicle accidents that involve an alcohol-impaired driver. While most states have enacted various traffic laws to address this phenomenon, little consensus exists on the causal impact of these laws in reducing alcohol-induced fatalities. This paper exploits quasi-random variation in state-level laws to estimate the causal effect of alcohol-related traffic laws on the frequency of fatal accidents. This is identified from the discontinuities in traffic laws among contiguous counties that are separated by a shared state border. We present robust evidence that the conventional approaches that are typically utilized in the literature may erroneously estimate the effectiveness of several alcohol-related laws.

Penalty-point system, deterrence and road safety: A quasi-experimental analysis

Article

Oct 2021
J ECON BEHAV ORGAN

We use three complementary quasi-experimental approaches to study the causal effect of introducing a penalty-point system (PPS) in Spain in July 1 2006, on drivers' behavior. According to Regression-Discontinuity (RD) estimates, the PPS decreased the number of traffic offenders by 14%, and this deterrence effect was directly related to the severity of the penalty. Concerns that RD estimates may over- or under-state the longer-run effects of the policy change are addressed by presenting the Difference-in-Differences (DiD) estimates, which reveal that the deterrence effect of this reform increased over time. Crucially, the reform also curbed accidents by 14%, injuries by 16%, and fatalities by 14%, and these effects persisted over time. Difference-in-RD estimates are consistent with the other two approaches. Altogether, the reform represented net benefits of over 946 million EUR per year (or 0.09% of the Spanish GDP) during the first three years after implementation.

Evaluating 24/7 Sobriety Program participant reoffense risk

Article

Full-text available

Jul 2021
J SAFETY RES

Objective: Our study investigated risk factors in survival among a subpopulation of drivers in North Dakota's 24/7 Sobriety Program. Participants mandated for a second driving-under-the-influence of alcohol (DUI) arrest were studied for a three-year interval that commenced with the start date for a 360-day enrollment. Method: A Stratified Cox regression model was developed to compute the hazard ratios for survival. A subsequent DUI-related offense as event of interest. Relation to the explanatory variable array that could be construed from administrative records were investigated. Results: Older drivers were 6.31 times more likely to reoffend than the younger driver cohort of 18-35-years. The survival curve slope showed the fastest decline in the 361-day to 730-day interval. Neither gender nor residence region was a significant predictor in DUI reoffense over the three-year monitoring interval. Preliminary work suggests reoffense was more likely if an individual had program history prior to this court mandated 360-day term in the 24/7 Sobriety Program for a second DUI. The program experience finding was unexpected but could not be studied in greater detail due to data and resource limitations. Conclusions: Administrative records access created a novel opportunity to explore an evolving impaired driving prevention strategy that has shown early promise. Individual driver survival in and after the 24/7 Sobriety Program was studied for three-years. Findings show age, post-program time interval, and possibly program history as areas to explore to improve survival rates. Driver DUI offense were most common shortly after program completion. Although limited to a single state, findings increase knowledge for refining strategies designed to impact driver subpopulations at higher risk for reoffense.

What and How of Effective Police Enforcement

Chapter

May 2021

Enforcement of traffic rules and regulations forms an important component of strategies to reduce deaths and injuries due to road traffic crashes. As with many other issues concerning road safety policy, it is not always clear whether common sense approaches in police enforcement actually reduce injuries and fatalities on the road. It is therefore important to assess whether a given enforcement measure, though seemingly beneficial in its intent, actually results in any reduction of delinquent behaviour of drivers and number of crashes. In this article, we assess the evidence base of effectiveness of on-road enforcement measures by conducting a review of systematic reviews on this topic. In this review, we focused only on the objective police programmes or strategies and excluded the reviews which assessed the effectiveness of a traffic enforcement law. We answer the following questions in this review: (a) what is the theoretical basis of different enforcement measures? (b) What are the different road safety enforcement measures for which evidence is available in systematic reviews and how current is this evidence? (c) What are the different limitations or drawbacks of different studies as reported by the systematic reviews and what are their implications on results? (d) What are the different factors which limit the generalisations of available evidence across different settings or across different types of modes? Our review suggests that: (i) legislation and enforcement are effective when violations are visible and easy to detect. (ii) Strict punishment not as effective as subjective perception of being caught violating a law. (iii) There is an absence of studies that could provide guidelines on police enforcement for low and middle-income countries on the following issues: (a) influence of road and infrastructure design on traffic violations and the difficulties of enforcement when designs are not adequate for the kind and volume of road users present; (b) critical/minimum levels of enforcement necessary for different traffic violations; (c) enforcement methods that would be cost effective in situations with high proportion of motorcycles and other vulnerable road users.

Risk perceptions and DUI decisions of drivers in different legal environments: New evidence on differential deterrence from a Chinese sample

Article

Full-text available

Jul 2021
ACCIDENT ANAL PREV

Objectives Research on the deterrent effects of driving-under-the-influence (DUI) laws has been limited in China, which has criminalized drunk driving since May 2011 yet the effectiveness of this legislation remains unclear. Primary studies are needed to confirm whether government reports of reductions in DUI rates since then can indeed match changes in driver perceptions of DUI risk, and if so, be attributed to what specific components of the DUI legal environments. Based on the classical theory of deterrence and recent advances in differential deterrence, this study adopted a conjoint experiment from a previous US study that simulated the decision-making process of potential drinking drivers, and evaluated how DUI sanctions and enforcement practices contributed differentially to the three components of deterrence (i.e., certainty, swiftness, and severity of punishment). Key individual characteristics and nonlegal factors, as suggested by differential deterrence research to moderate the impact of DUI laws, were also considered. Methods A Web-based conjoint experiment was conducted on a sample of 109 college students from two major universities in Shenzhen, China. Participants were randomly assigned to blocks of hypothetical scenarios composed of different levels of DUI enforcement and penalties, and asked to choose from a pair of scenarios each time, in which they were more likely to drink and drive. They also answered questions adapted from previous studies that measured key individual factors in relation to differential deterrence, such as informal sanction threat, moral inhibition, and personal and vicarious experiences with punishment. Such individual differences were accounted for in both a conventional two-level mixed logit aggregate model and a Hierarchical Bayes model. Results Consistent with prior findings in Western countries, DUI enforcement intensity, was found to be the strongest deterrent to potential drinking drivers in China. License suspension, as an administrative punishment that can be swiftly implemented, was also effective in deterring the Chinese drivers, who however were much more likely to fear the revocation of their licenses rather than a 6-month suspension only. Meanwhile, they were notably deterred by the possibility of being in jail for 1–3 days, let alone for 1–2 months. Altogether, enforcement, license suspension and jail penalties accounted for more than 75 percent of attribute impact on drivers’ decision to drink and drive, whereas fine penalty and license points had almost no effect. On the other hand, nonlegal factors such as informal sanction threat and vicarious experiences were found to have significantly moderated the deterrent effects of DUI laws. Conclusions Overall, this study quantified the unique effects of perceived certainty, swiftness, and severity of DUI punishment in the Chinese context, and supported the usefulness of conjoint experiments for examining risk perceptions and DUI decisions in different legal environments. It also provided new empirical evidence on differential deterrence and pointed out the need of determining for which subsets of individuals and under what conditions can legal sanctions successfully deter potential offenders. Such research will help researchers and policy makers better understand the role of deterrence, for more effective policy development related to DUI as well as other important traffic safety issues.

Increasing traffic fines

Chapter

Full-text available

Jun 2017

Charles Goldenbeld

Penalties for traffic violations, e.g. in the form of fines, are part of the traffic law enforcement chain. According to deterrence theory, a sufficiently high chance of detection of a violation and a sufficiently high penalty will deter road users from committing traffic violations. This synopsis describes the effects of fine increase on several road safety indicators. Studies on fines and road safety have linked the increase in fines to changes in traffic violations, changes in recidivism (reoffending), and changes in crashes. A 2016 meta-analysis indicated that fine increases between 50 and 100% are associated with a 15% decrease in violations, that fine increases of up to 50% do not influence violations, and that fine increases over 100% are associated with a 4% increase in violations and thus tended to be counterproductive. The effects of fine increase on recidivism are mixed, but the more severe and frequent offenders do not seem to be influenced by fine increases. An increase of fines was associated with a 5-10% reduction in all crashes, and a 1-12% reduction in fatal crashes. In general, studies had insufficiently controlled for confounding factors and results should be interpreted cautiously. Moreover, most studies looked at the effect immediately after a change in fines and at places with high enforcement levels. Hence, it cannot be excluded that the reported effects are limited in time and place.

Climate change, weather and road deaths

Article

Aug 2017

Leon Robertson

In 2015, a 7% increase in road deaths per population in the USA reversed the 35-year downward trend. Here I test the hypothesis that weather influenced the change in trend. I used linear regression to estimate the effect of temperature and precipitation on miles driven per capita in urbanizedurbanised areas of the USA during 2010. I matched date and county of death with temperature on that date and number of people exposed to that temperature to calculate the risk per persons exposed to specific temperatures. I employed logistic regression analysis of temperature, precipitation and other risk factors prevalent in 2014 to project expected deaths in 2015 among the 100 most populous counties in the USA. Comparison of actual and projected deaths provided an estimate of deaths expected without the temperature increase.

Alcohol-Impaired Driving and Perceived Risks of Legal Consequences

Article

Full-text available

Jan 2017

Background: Driving while impaired (DWI) is a threat to public health. Codified legal sanctions are a widely implemented strategy to reduce DWI. However, it is unclear that sanctioning affects individual risk perceptions so as to deter alcohol-impaired driving. Methods: Using survey data collected from individual drivers, police, and defense attorneys specializing in DWI in 8 U.S. cities, we investigated whether risk perceptions about legal consequences for alcohol-impaired driving, both the risk of being stopped if driving while alcohol-impaired and receiving specific penalties following a DWI, deter alcohol-impaired driving. First, we analyzed how different drivers' risk perceptions about being pulled over and facing criminal sanctions related to their self-reported alcohol-impaired driving in the year following the interview at which risk perceptions were elicited. Second, using data from an experimental module in which individual's risk perceptions were randomly updated by the interview, we analyzed how each driver's beliefs about his or her own future alcohol-impaired driving responded to randomly generated increases in the apprehension probability and sanction magnitude. Results: Higher probabilities as estimated by the individuals of being pulled over corresponded to less alcohol-impaired driving in both analyses. Conversely, there was no statistical relationship between perceptions of criminal sanctions for DWI and alcohol-impaired driving with 1 exception-a small significant negative relationship between duration of jail time following a DWI conviction and alcohol-impaired driving. Conclusions: Perceptions regarding the threat of being apprehended for alcohol-impaired driving were related to actual self-reported driving, while perceived sanctions following a DWI conviction for DWI generally were unrelated to either actual self-reported alcohol-impaired driving or the person's estimate of probability that he or she would drive while alcohol-impaired in the following year. Increasing certainty of apprehension by increasing police staffing and/or conducting sobriety checks is a more effective strategy for reducing alcohol-impaired driving than legislating increased penalties for DWI.

Examining Specific Deterrence Effects on DWI Among Serious Offenders

Article

Oct 2016
CRIME DELINQUENCY

Deterrence research supports the idea that punishment curbs offending; however, results for the specific deterrent effects of drunk driving are more nuanced. This research is often limited in its use of non-offender samples, its failure to examine links between past sanctions and subsequent risk perceptions, and in its use of aggregate-level data, thereby precluding any exploration of individuals’ perceived sanction risks. The current study examines the relationship between 824 felony inmates’ experiences with formal legal sanctions for drunk driving and their risk perceptions for driving drunk as well as their hypothetical intentions to drive drunk. Results generally fail to support deterrence theory’s propositions, and instead uncover some positive punishment effects (higher drunk driving intentions among those sanctioned previously) net of important theoretical controls. Implications for subsequent research and policy making are presented.

Analyzing the effectiveness of implemented highway safety laws for traffic safety across U.S. states

Article

Jul 2016

Since highway safety laws vary greatly from state to state in the U.S., there is a need to analyze the effectiveness and performances of the implemented highway safety laws. The random-parameter zero-truncated negative binomial (RZTNB) models are proposed to analyze the effects of highway safety laws on fatal crashes at state levels. The results show that the proposed models are useful in describing the relationships between the fatal crashes and the explanatory variables with better goodness of fit. By accounting for the heterogeneities, the RZTNB model outperforms the negative binomial model and reveals new insights. The findings indicate that (1) compared to the secondary ban, the primary handheld cellphone ban is more effective; (2) establishing reasonable and acceptable speed limits can enhance the traffic safety; and (3) the implemented speed camera system and ignition interlock device have weaknesses and alternative methods should be considered when upgrading laws and regulations.

Crime prevention: Approaches, practices, and evaluations

Book

Feb 2016

Steven P. Lab

Crime Prevention: Approaches, Practices, and Evaluations, 9th Edition, meets the needs of students and instructors for engaging, evidence-based, impartial coverage of the origins of crime, as well as of public policy that can reduce or prevent deviance. The book examines a range of approaches to preventing crime and elucidates their respective goals. Strategies include primary prevention measures designed to prevent conditions that foster deviance; secondary prevention measures directed toward persons or conditions with a high potential for deviance; and tertiary prevention measures to deal with persons who have already committed crimes. This edition provides research and information on all aspects of crime prevention, including the physical environment and crime, neighborhood crime prevention programs, community policing, crime in schools, and electronic monitoring and home confinement. Lab offers a thorough and well-rounded discussion of the many sides of the crime prevention debate, in clear and accessible language.

DWI/DUI Interventions

Chapter

Jul 2011

Attitudes about drinking and driving have changed dramatically over the past few decades due to a combination of factors. Initiatives to address impaired driving have varied from harsher penalties to substance abuse treatment responses. This article reviews what works, what doesn’t, what is inconclusive, and what looks promising for the future including traditional police responses such as sobriety checkpoints and vehicle or license sanctions. Victim Impact Panels and other more innovative initiatives have mixed reviews. Knowing that severity of sentences does not affect long term change, the criminal justice system has initiated robust programs that look promising. Courts are using new technologies and pharmacological responses to monitor offenders and reduce recidivism. Over the past ten years, Driving While Impaired (DWI) courts have sprung up throughout the United States and look to be an important part of the goal of reduced impaired driving and resulting crashes.

Association between increase in fixed penalties and road safety outcomes: A meta-analysis

Article

Jul 2016

Rune Elvik

Studies that have evaluated the association between increases in traffic fine amounts (fixed penalties) and changes in compliance with road traffic law or the number of accidents are synthesised by means of meta-analysis. The studies were few and different in many respects. Nine studies were included in the meta-analysis of changes in compliance. Four studies were included in the meta-analysis of changes in accidents. Increasing traffic fines was found to be associated with small changes in the rate of violations. The changes were non-linear. For increases up to about 100%, violations were reduced. For larger increases, no reduction in violations was found. A small reduction in fatal accidents was associated with increased fixed penalties, varying between studies from less than 1-12%. The main pattern of changes in violations was similar in the fixed-effects and random-effects models of meta-analysis, meta-regression and when simple (non-weighted) mean values were computed. The main findings are thus robust, although most of the primary studies did not control very well for potentially confounding factors. Summary estimates of changes in violations or accidents should be treated as provisional and do not necessarily reflect causal relationships.

Can Progress in Reducing Alcohol-Impaired Driving Fatalities Be Resumed? Results of a Workshop Sponsored by the Transportation Research Board Alcohol, Other Drugs, and Transportation Committee (ANB50)

Article

Full-text available

Mar 2016

Objective: Despite successes in the 1980s and early 1990s, progress in reducing impaired driving fatalities in the United States has stagnated in recent years. Since 1997, the percentage of drivers involved in fatal crashes with illegal blood alcohol concentration (BAC) levels has remained at approximately 20% to 22%. Many experts believe that public complacency, competing social and public health issues, and the lack of political fortitude have all contributed to this stagnation. The number of alcohol-related crashes, injuries, and fatalities is still unacceptable, and most are preventable. The public needs to be aware that the problem presented by drinking drivers has not been solved. Political leaders need guidance on which measures will affect the problem, and stakeholders need to be motivated once again to implement effective strategies. Methods: The National Academy of Sciences (NAS) Transportation Research Board (TRB) Alcohol, Other Drugs, and Transportation Committee (ANB50) sponsored a workshop held at the NAS facility in Woods Hole, MA, on August 24-25, 2015, to discuss the lack of progress in reducing impaired driving and to make recommendations for future progress. A total of 26 experts in research and policy related to alcohol-impaired driving participated in the workshop. The workshop began by examining the static situation in the rate of alcohol-impaired driving fatal crashes to determine what factors may be inhibiting further progress. The workshop then discussed eight effective strategies that have not been fully implemented in the United States. Workshop participants (16 of the 26) rated their top three strategies. Results: Three strategies received the most support: 1. Impose administrative sanctions for drivers with BACs = .05 to .08 g/dL. 2. Require alcohol ignition interlocks for all alcohol-impaired driving offenders. 3. Increase the frequency of sobriety checkpoints, including enacting legislation to allow them in the 11 states that currently prohibit them. Five other important strategies included the following: (a) increase alcohol taxes to raise the price and reduce alcohol consumption; (b) re-engage the public and raise the priority of impaired driving; (c) lower the illegal per se BAC limit to .05 for a criminal offense; (d) develop and implement in-vehicle alcohol detection systems; and (e) expand the use of screening and brief interventions in medical facilities. Conclusions: Each of these strategies is proven to be effective, yet all are substantially underutilized. Each is used in some jurisdictions in the United States or Canada, but none is used extensively. Any one of the three strategies implemented on a widespread basis would decrease impaired driving crashes, injuries, and fatalities. Based on the research, all three together would have a substantial impact on the problem.

Effective Drink Driving Prevention and Enforcement Strategies: Approaches to Improving Practice

Article

Feb 2014

Effects of Tort Liability and Insurance on Heavy Drinking and Drinking and Driving

Article

Full-text available

Feb 1995

Using self-reported data on patterns of alcohol use among individuals from the 1989-90 Behavioral Risk Factor Surveys, this study investigates effects of tort liability and third- and first-party insurance, alcohol prices, and criminal sanctions on frequency of binge drinking and driving under the influence of alcohol (DUI). Requiring drivers to purchase third-party insurance discouraged binge drinking, especially in states combining compulsory insurance with a surcharge for a DUI. Implementation of no-fault laws and switching from contributory to comparative negligence increased binge drinking, while higher alcohol prices reduced it. With one exception, neither tort nor contort deterrents affected the fraction of bingeing episodes after which the individual drove. Overall, it appears that deterrence of DUI is achieved by curbing behavior that leads to DUI, namely, binge drinking. Once individuals engage in binge drinking, it appears that many policies designed to be deterrents have little influence. Copyright 1995 by the University of Chicago.

Drunk-driving recidivism: Predicting factors from arrest context and case disposition

Article

Full-text available

Feb 1995

Efforts were made to examine drinking-driving recidivism in relation to arrest context and subsequent case disposition. Three specific hypotheses were tested, regarding blood alcohol concentration, time of arrest and sanctions. Complete 1989, 1990 and 1991 traffic ticket files from the New York State police were the baseline data for the study. Analyses show that high recidivism rates tend to be among offenders whose alcohol tickets were not disposed in a timely manner and offenders who were able to avoid a conviction even though their tickets were disposed. Other factors, such as time of arrest and the BAC reading at the arrest, do not significantly predict drinking-driving recidivism. Findings indicate that, after drinking-driving laws have been dramatically reinforced, an important remaining task is to swiftly and effectively convict drinking-driving offenders. In addition, a legal mechanism should be established to monitor multiple offenders and offenders who actively delay or manipulate court processing.

Policy Evaluation Research: Measuring the Independent Variables

Article

Full-text available

Mar 2000
EVALUATION REV

The purpose of this article is to evaluate the accuracy of three methods used to obtain policy data: (a) government agency surveys, (b) secondary sources, and (c) historical legal research. Changes in laws were identified for all 48 contiguous states for the period 1968 to 1994. Legal research is most accurate for well-established laws that have consistent legal descriptions across nearly all states. Laws that are recently enacted, adopted by only a few states, and treated in a legally inconsistent manner across states require a multistage data collection method to identify accurate policy change information.

Association of alcohol-related laws with deaths due to motor vehicle and motorcycle crashes in the United States, 1980-1997

Article

Full-text available

Feb 2003
AM J EPIDEMIOL

The authors compared US motor vehicle and motorcycle mortality rates during periods when each of several alcohol-related laws were in effect with mortality rates during other periods. During the period 1980-1997, there were 792,184 deaths due to motor vehicle crashes and 63,052 deaths due to motorcycle crashes. An estimated 26% and 49% of these fatalities, respectively, were attributable to alcohol use. The incidence of alcohol-related mortality in motor vehicle crashes was lower when laws specifying a blood alcohol concentration of 0.08 g/dl per se (laws stating that it is a criminal offense to drive with a blood alcohol concentration above the state's legal limit) were in effect (adjusted rate ratio (RR) = 0.86, 95% confidence interval (CI): 0.83, 0.88). For motorcycle deaths, the adjusted rate ratio was 0.87 (95% CI: 0.79, 0.95). The incidence of alcohol-related mortality in motor vehicle crashes was also lower during periods when two other types of laws were in effect: zero tolerance laws (adjusted RR = 0.88, 95% CI: 0.86, 0.90) and administrative license revocation laws (adjusted RR = 0.95, 95% CI: 0.93, 0.98). Overall motorcycle mortality was lower when administrative license revocation laws were in effect (adjusted RR = 0.95, 95% CI: 0.92, 0.98).

The effectiveness of reducing illegal blood alcohol concentration (BAC) limits for driving: Evidence for lowering the limit to .05 BAC

Article

Full-text available

Feb 2006
J SAFETY RES

This scientific review provides a summary of the evidence regarding the benefits of reducing the illegal blood alcohol concentration (BAC) limit for driving and providing a case for enacting a .05 BAC limit. Fourteen independent studies in the United States indicate that lowering the illegal BAC limit from .10 to .08 has resulted in 5-16% reductions in alcohol-related crashes, fatalities, or injuries. However, the illegal limit is .05 BAC in numerous countries around the world. Several studies indicate that lowering the illegal per se limit from .08 to .05 BAC also reduces alcohol-related fatalities. Laboratory studies indicate that impairment in critical driving functions begins at low BACs and that most subjects are significantly impaired at .05 BAC. The relative risk of being involved in a fatal crash as a driver is 4 to 10 times greater for drivers with BACs between .05 and .07 compared to drivers with .00 BACs. There is strong evidence in the literature that lowering the BAC limit from .10 to .08 is effective, that lowering the BAC limit from .08 to .05 is effective, and that lowering the BAC limit for youth to .02 or lower is effective. These law changes serve as a general deterrent to drinking and driving and ultimately save lives. This critical review supports the adoption of lower illegal BAC limits for driving.

Alcohol Regulation and Auto Fatalities

Article

Full-text available

Feb 2000
INT REV LAW ECON

We examine the relationship between motor-vehicle fatalities and alcohol taxes, prices, and various drinking laws. Estimates are based on data from 48 states over 9 years and consider total, youth, and alcohol-involved fatalities. None of the beer tax or price coefficients is significantly different from 0. The magnitudes of the estimated effects are much smaller than those reported in some previous studies. Seatbelt laws, the minimum legal drinking age, and dram-shop laws typically have statistically significant, negative relationships with fatalities. Other variables—including preliminary breath tests and various mandatory penalties for driving under the influence—are imprecisely estimated, sometimes have incorrect signs, and are usually not statistically significant.

Probation and the Drunk Driver: A Cost of Being MADD

Article

Jan 1992

Drinking

Article

Jan 1993

D.S. Kenkel

Policies to Reduce Alcohol-Impaired Driving: Evaluating Elements of Deterrence

Article

Jan 1994
SOC SCI QUART

The abstract for this document is available on CSA Illumina.To view the Abstract, click the Abstract button above the document title.

Policy Design, Social Regulation, and Theory Building: Lessons from the Traffic Safety Policy Arena

Article

Sep 1993

Despite the interest of political scientists in social regulatory policy implementation, only recently has the policy design movement begun classifying and assessing the comparative advantage of various policy "tools" or implements. This study seeks to advance understanding of social regulatory policy tools by assessing their potential as a vehicle for developing midrange theories of policy design. Analysis of Michigan traffic safety data indicates that those pursuing policy design research should anticipate that: (1) enforcement effects vary across regulatory tools; (2) attributes such as "birth order" and "precision of targeting" can condition the impact of various types of social regulatory tools differently; (3) success is conditioned not only by implement attributes, but also by implementation styles, contexts, and target populations; and (4) the comparative advantage of any tool can be assessed accurately only by considering its interaction with other implements across these disparate styles, contexts, and target populations.

Evaluating the Effects of Safety Policy Measures on Traffic Fatalities in Korea

Article

May 2006

The effects of five traffic safety policies implemented in Korea are evaluated: the seat belt law; the installation of a tachometer or a speed limiter; a three‐strikeout driving while intoxicated (DWI) offence; a heavier penalty for a DWI offence; and the traffic violator report rewarding program. The monthly counts of crashes, injuries and fatalities in 1984–2003 were examined using an ARIMA intervention impact analysis to detect statistically and quantify the effectiveness of each of the five policies. No statistically significant abrupt and permanent impacts of the five policies on reducing the numbers of total crashes, fatalities and injuries were found.

Policies to Reduce Alcohol-Impaired Driving: Evaluating Elements of Deterrence

Article

Jan 1994

Jerome S. Legge Jr

The Effectiveness of Legal Sanctions in Dealing with Drinking Drivers

Article

Jun 1991
J SAFETY RES

mandate. Examples are fines, license actions such as suspension and revocation, jail sentences, and alternatives such as community service. Deterrence theory posits that sanctions will be effective in modifying Ixhavior to the extent that they are perceived as being certain, swiftly applied, andsevere. Thcsc three primary characteristics of penalties, if appropriately perceived, have the potential to reduce drunk driving.

Rehabilitation in the New Machine? Exploring Drug and Alcohol Use and Variables Related to Success among DUI Offenders Under Electronic Monitoring—Some Preliminary Outcome Results

Article

Jun 2000

When the “Western County” (Penn.) Probation Department implemented a house arrest with electronic monitoring (EM) program in the fall of 1992, offenders convicted under the commonwealth’s mandatory driving under the influence (DUI) act were divided into two groups: One group went to jail and the other group served their sentence under house arrest with EM. Using descriptive and inferential statistics, this article examines differences in drug and alcohol consumption between the two groups and variables related to success for those in the EM program. With regard to drug and alcohol consumption, although differences did exist, they were not significant. However, using cross-tabulation tables and chi-squares, it was determined that two variables—successful attendance at treatment and employment—were significantly related to success while on EM. Such findings indicate the importance of both variables in the selection and supervision process.

Analysis of Incomplete Data

Book

Aug 1997

Joseph L. Schafer

Introduction Assumptions EM and Inference by Data Augmentation Methods for Normal Data More on the Normal Model Methods for Categorical Data Loglinear Models Methods for Mixed Data Further Topics Appendices References Index

Effects of House Arrest with Electronic Monitoring on DUI Offenders

Article

May 1997

The “Western” County Probation Department (PA) implemented a house arrest with electronic monitoring (EM) program in the Fall of 1992. This article provides an evaluation of the first 57 offenders who participated in this program. Offenders included in this study were all convicted of the crime of Driving Under the Influence (DUI). The Commonwealth's mandatory DUI Act provided an opportunity to study two very similar groups. The main difference between the two was that one group went to jail while the other served their sentence under house arrest with EM. Descriptive and inferential statistics revealed no statistically significant differences between the two groups with respect to rearrest, revocations, and detainers filed (technical violations). Also, the overwhelming majority of EM offenders were able to successfully complete their EM period of supervision without incident, addressing the negative claims that such programs unduly jeopardize the safety of the community. Findings indicate that house arrest with EM can be an effective alternative to jail for many DUI offenders.

Multiple imputation of missing blood alcohol concentration (BAC) values in FARS

Article

Jan 2003

Civil Liability, Criminal Law, and Other Policies and Alcohol-Related Motor Vehicle Fatalities in the United States: 1984–1995

Article

Dec 2000
ACCIDENT ANAL PREV

This study examines the associations between alcohol policies and motor vehicle fatality rates from 1984 to 1995 in the United States. State policies and state characteristics variables were merged with motor vehicle fatality rates over an 11 year period and analyzed using minimum logit chi-square method and fixed effects to create a quasi time-series analysis. Laws allowing individuals to sue bars for the drunken behavior of their patrons were the policies most strongly associated with lower minor and adult fatality rates. The mandatory first offense fine was associated with lower minor fatality rates but not adult fatality rates, while minor and adult rates fell after administrative per se license suspension and anti-consumption laws for all vehicle occupants. Many other public policies evaluated were not associated with lower fatality rates.

On Preventing Drunk Driving Recidivism: An Examination of Rehabilitation and Punishment Approaches

Article

Mar 1998
J CRIM JUST

A major policy concern regarding the sentencing of drunk drivers is whether rehabilitation or punishment should be the dominant strategy. Essentially, rehabilitation attempts to treat the underlying alcohol problem of drunk drivers and inhibit future drunk driving, while punishment utilizes the threat of punitive legal sanctions and various types of punishments to deter drunk drivers. The relative merits of punishment and rehabilitation approaches have been studied in an isolated fashion with almost no empirical research examining the two simultaneously. Following a review of these approaches, this article examines the relative merits of the two strategies with data from a sample of offenders of driving while intoxicated (DWI) laws sentenced in the state of Maryland. The research also explores the differential effect of punishment and rehabilitation for first time offenders. For all offenders, Cox proportional hazard models indicate that rehabilitation sentences appear to reduce the likelihood of recidivism more than punishment sentences. For first time offenders, use of less formal punishment was the most effective in deterring drunk driving. The theoretical and policy implications of the results are addressed.

Punishment and alcohol problems: Recidivism among drinking-driving offenders

Article

Feb 2000
J CRIM JUST

Jiang Yu

The degree to which punishment reduces criminal recidivism has been extensively studied, though few efforts have examined the extent to which sanctions are effective for offenders whose criminal behaviors are a result of their alcohol and substance abuse problems. This study was conducted under the hypothesis that the effect of alcohol problems and the effect of sanctions tend to negate each other. Sanctions reduce the chance of repeat drinking-driving offenses, while severe alcohol problems increase such chances. Analysis based on a sample of 521 persons who had prior arrests for drinking-driving offenses indicated that offenders' alcohol problems are the strongest predictor of future recidivism. When alcohol problems were controlled for, punitive sanctions did not significantly decrease the chance of recidivism. Findings suggest that carefully screening drinking-driving offenders' alcohol-related problems and providing effective treatment to those offenders who are in need of such services, constitute critical strategies to reduce drinking-driving recidivism. Similar strategies should be applied to offenders who committed alcohol/drug-related offenses other than drinking-driving.

Drunk-Driving Research and Innovation: A Factorial Survey Study of Decisions To Drink and Drive

Article

Sep 1993

Drunk driving continues to be a heavily studied research topic. However, despite much emphasis on the study of individual behavior using conventional survey techniques, new insight into the problem of drunk driving has been slow to develop. The study described below uses factorial surveys to examine the drunk-driving judgments of a national probability sample of 528 nonabstaining adults. These data suggest that key components in decisions to drink and drive include the extent of the driver′s behavioral impairment, the availability of drunk-driving alternatives, weather conditions, the number of miles that have to be driven after drinking, the legal consequences of drunk driving (in terms of jail sentences and license revocations), the community response to drunk driving, where drinking occurs, fines that might be issued, the use of traffic roadblocks, and the driver′s familiarity with roads that must be driven after a drinking event. The analysis undertaken also shows that the influence of these same factors varies across levels of drunk driving experience, suggesting that those persons most experienced with drunk driving tend to rate legal sanctions as more important in judgments to drink and drive than those persons who typically refrain from drunk driving.

Punishment celerity and severity: Testing a specific deterrence model on drunk driving recidivism

Article

Feb 1994
J CRIM JUST

Jiang Yu

This article examines the effects of punishment celerity and severity simultaneously in a specific deterrence model of drunk driving. Additive and interaction equations are estimated, with legal and nonlegal conditions controlled for. The findings suggest that, when license withdrawal is mandatory, an increase in fines significantly decreases the probability of recidivism. Some effect is also noted for a swift imposition of fines. No independent effect is found for license actions in this analysis. Detailed discussions on the results and public policy implications are provided.

Confronting Drunk Driving: Social Policy for Saving Lives

Article

Jun 1993

H. Laurence Ross

Sumario: Causes and consequences of drunk driving -- Law and criminal justice -- Countermeasures based in alcohol policy -- Countermeasures based in transportation policy -- Saving lives in spite of drunk driving -- Paradigms and policies

A General Theory of Crime

Article

Jan 1990

By articulating a general theory of crime and related behavior, the authors present a new and comprehensive statement of what the criminological enterprise should be about. They argue that prevalent academic criminologyâwhether sociological, psychological, biological, or economicâhas been unable to provide believable explanations of criminal behavior. The long-discarded classical tradition in criminology was based on choice and free will, and saw crime as the natural consequence of unrestrained human tendencies to seek pleasure and to avoid pain. It concerned itself with the nature of crime and paid little attention to the criminal. The scientific, or disciplinary, tradition is based on causation and determinism, and has dominated twentieth-century criminology. It concerns itself with the nature of the criminal and pays little attention to the crime itself. Though the two traditions are considered incompatible, this book brings classical and modern criminology together by requiring that their conceptions be consistent with each other and with the results of research. The authors explore the essential nature of crime, finding that scientific and popular conceptions of crime are misleading, and they assess the truth of disciplinary claims about crime, concluding that such claims are contrary to the nature of crime and, interestingly enough, to the data produced by the disciplines themselves. They then put forward their own theory of crime, which asserts that the essential element of criminality is the absence of self-control. Persons with high self-control consider the long-term consequences of their behavior; those with low self-control do not. Such control is learned, usually early in life, and once learned, is highly resistant to change. In the remainder of the book, the authors apply their theory to the persistent problems of criminology. Why are men, adolescents, and minorities more likely than their counterparts to commit criminal acts? What is the role of the school in the causation of delinquincy? To what extent could crime be reduced by providing meaningful work? Why do some societies have much lower crime rates than others? Does white-collar crime require its own theory? Is there such a thing as organized crime? In all cases, the theory forces fundamental reconsideration of the conventional wisdom of academians and crimina justic practitioners. The authors conclude by exploring the implications of the theory for the future study and control of crime.

Policing and Punishing the Drinking Driver: A Study of General and Specific Deterrence.

Article

Sep 1989

Ross Homel

Typescript. Thesis (Ph. D.) - Macquarie University, 1985. Bibliography: leaves [424]-443.

Association of Alcohol-related Laws with Deaths due to Motor Vehicle and Motorcycle Crashes in the United States, 1980-1997

Article

Jan 2000
AM J EPIDEMIOL

Andrés Villaveces

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Washington, 2000 Context. Alcohol-related crashes are a leading cause of death in the United States. Many states have passed laws to reduce the likelihood that individuals will drink and drive.Objective. To use national data to estimate the effects of selected driving while drinking laws on all fatal traffic crashes, automobile crashes, motorcycle crashes, and alcohol-related crashes for each of these vehicle categories.Design. Interrupted time series study for longitudinal data.Setting. The United States from 1980 through 1997.Participants. The population of the United States.Main outcome measure. Motor vehicle and motorcycle mortality rates during periods when the laws were in effect were compared with mortality rates during periods when the laws were not in effect; our estimates were based on comparisons within states and a pooled estimate between states over a period of 18 years.Results. There were 792,184 deaths due to traffic crashes; rate 17.4 per 100,000 person-years. During this period, an estimated 26% of fatalities were attributable to alcohol use. An estimated 49% of motorcycle fatalities were attributable to alcohol use. The incidence of alcohol-related mortality due to traffic crashes was lower during periods when BAC 0.08 g/dl per se laws were in effect 0.86 (0.83--0.88) for all motor vehicles, 0.87 (0.84--0.89) for automobiles, and 0.87 (0.79--0.95) for motorcycles The incidence of alcohol-related mortality due to traffic crashes was also lower during periods when zero tolerance laws, administrative license revocation laws, and mandatory jail sentencing for first drunk driving convictions laws were in effect; 0.88 (95% CI 0.86--0.90), 0.95 (95% CI 0.94--0.96), and 0.95 (95% CI 0.93--0.98) respectively. Allowing police to conduct sobriety checkpoints was not associated with a reduction in alcohol-related traffic crashes.Conclusion. Our results support recent policy measures that set a national level of 0.08mg/dl for BAC levels. Other policies such as administrative license revocation and zero tolerance laws are useful in reducing alcohol-related traffic deaths.

Alcohol-Control Policies and Motor-Vehicle Fatalities

Article

Feb 1993

The purpose of this study is to estimate the effects of drunk driving deterrents and other alcohol related policies on drunk driving. The data set employed is an annual time-series of state cross-sections for the 48 contiguous states of the U.S. from 1982 through 1988. Total and alterative alcohol involved motor vehicle fatality rates, for the general population and for 18 to 20 year olds, are used as measures of drunk driving. The results indicate that the moat effective policies are increased beer taxes and mandatory administrative license actions. Maintaining the beer tax at its real 1951 value would have reduced fatalities by 11.5 percent annually, on average, during the sample period. A mandatory administrative license sanction of one year would have reduced fatalities by 9 percent. The next most effective policies are a 21 year old legal drinking age, preliminary breath test and dram shop laws and relatively large mandatory fines. These policies each reduce total fatalities by about 5 to 6 percent. No plea bargaining provisions and mandatory license sanctions upon conviction are also found to have some deterrent effect. Other drunk driving laws tested include mandatory jail sentences and community service options, illegal per se laws, and open container laws. None of these were found to have a deterrent effect on drunk driving.

Drinking, Driving, and Deterrence: The Effectiveness and Social Costs of Alternative Policies

Article

Feb 1993

Don Kenkel

The abstract for this document is available on CSA Illumina.To view the Abstract, click the Abstract button above the document title.

Impact of court monitoring on the adjudication of Driving While Intoxicated (DWI)

Article

May 1992
ACCIDENT ANAL PREV

David Shinar

Court monitoring of driving while intoxicated (DWI) cases is a labor-intensive effort conducted by over 300 concerned citizen groups across the United States. The present study assessed the impact of court monitoring by analyzing the difference in court dispositions (guilty, not guilty, and dismissed) and case outcomes (jail, fine, and license suspension) between monitored cases and non-monitored cases. The data base for this study consisted of all 9,137 DWI arrests made in the state of Maine in one calendar year. The results demonstrated that court monitoring is an effective tool in affecting the adjudication process. In the presence of court monitors the conviction rates of DWI offenders were higher and their case dismissal rates were lower than those of drivers not court-monitored. Furthermore, once convicted, the likelihood of a jail sentence was higher and the length of the jail sentence was longer for court-monitored DWI drivers than for non-monitored drivers. Monitoring impact was most pronounced for first-time offenders with BAC levels of .10-.11, and those refusing the BAC test.

Methods Used in Studies of Drink-Drive Control Efforts: A Meta-Analysis of the Literature From 1960 to 1991

Article

Jul 1995
ACCIDENT ANAL PREV

We searched the drink-drive control literature over the past three decades, finding over six thousand documents. After detailed review of the abstracts and papers, 125 studies contained separate empirical evaluations of the effects of 12 DWI control policies and enforcement efforts (administrative license suspension, illegal per se, implied consent, preliminary breath test, mandatory jail sentence, mandatory community service, mandatory license suspension, limits on plea bargaining, mandatory fines, selective enforcement patrols, regular police patrols, and sobriety checkpoints). The 125 studies contained 664 distinct analyses that formed the basis for meta-analysis. All of the DWI control efforts were associated with reductions in drink-driving and traffic crashes. The DWI control literature is limited by the preponderance of weak study designs and reports that often fail to include basic data required for meta-analysis. Because of the poor quality of much extant research, we were limited to simple gain scores or percent change estimates in the current study. Further research that does not include appropriate research designs and analytic methods will be of limited utility. We recommend that all future reports include effect estimates and standard error estimates, minimum data required for effective meta-analysis.

Abandonment of Mandatory Jail for Impaired Drivers in Norway and Sweden

Article

May 1995
ACCIDENT ANAL PREV

In 1988 and 1990, respectively, Norway and Sweden adopted legal reforms including abandonment of mandatory jail sentences for persons driving with BACs above specific limits. Interrupted time-series analysis finds that in both countries traffic deaths diminished simultaneously with the reforms, consistent with the understanding that Scandinavian success in reducing impaired driving does not depend upon mandatory jail.

Effects of prices, civil and criminal sanctions, and law enforcement on alcohol-related mortality

Article

Aug 1994

Alcohol use has been linked to several causes of death. This study provides an empirical analysis of the effects of various public policies on mortality rates by state and year for the years 1982-88. Causes of death analyzed are: alcohol primary cause; traffic accident; homicides; suicides; falls, fires and other accidents; and contributory cause deaths (cancers of the alimentary tract). We find that increasing the price of alcohol decreases mortality rates for some of the causes, but not for primary cause deaths. Higher excise taxes on cigarettes reduce contributory cause mortality. Dram shop laws have negative and statistically significant effects not only on mortality rates from traffic accidents, but for several of the other causes. There is a need for further analysis to determine how these reductions are achieved. We find no evidence that imposing mandatory minimum jail terms, fines or license revocation for a DUI conviction affects alcohol-related mortality. However, increased police protection decreases mortality rates for several categories, especially homicides and traffic accidents. We find that imposing the death penalty reduces homicide rates. Reductions in alcohol-related mortality may be achieved by implementing a mix of public policies. No single policy is a panacea.

The Relative Effectiveness of Sanctions Applied to First-time Drunken Driving Offenders

Article

Mar 1994
AM J PREV MED

We selected for study drivers who were sentenced either to jail or a certified driver intervention program (DIP) in Franklin County, Ohio, in 1987 after their first drunken driving (DUI) conviction. Because each drunken driving charge was assigned to one of a pool of 15 judges with widely varying sentencing patterns, there was no apparent bias in subject allocation to the two treatments. For the jailed (n = 124) and DIP (n = 218) cohorts, we compared the likelihood of subsequent impaired driving, as evidenced by rearrest for a new alcohol-related driving offense or involvement in a car crash after drinking in the 4 years following the study-selected event. After controlling for potentially important covariates, such as gender, age, race, blood alcohol concentration, additional charges filed at the time of arrest, and driving history, we derived logistic regression results indicating that DIP attendees had significantly lower rates of subsequent impaired driving. Drivers who had no prior history of at least one non-DUI alcohol-related offense were significantly more likely to display additional impaired driving when jailed as opposed to those enrolled in a DIP (odds ratio [OR] = 2.53, confidence interval [CI] = 1.44, 4.45), while those with previous alcohol-related offenses may have fared better in jail (OR = .56, CI = .11, 2.76). Drivers younger than 21 years of age were also at elevated risk for repeat offenses (OR = 2.46, CI = 1.13, 5.35). DIPs appear most effective when used for persons who have not had previous alcohol-related crashes or driving offenses.

A time series evaluation of California's 1982 driving-under-the-influence legislative reforms

Article

Mar 1994
ACCIDENT ANAL PREV

This study evaluated the impact of 1982 legislative reforms, including enhanced penalties, greater sentencing uniformity, and the introduction of an illegal per se standard, on California's driving-under-the-influence (DUI) countermeasure system. Intervention time series analysis was used to evaluate the general deterrent effects of these laws, as measured by alcohol-related fatal and injury accident rates, both statewide and in counties sharing similar demographic and enforcement patterns. In combination with the legislative effects, analyses also assessed the significance of prelegislative publicity associated with an emerging antidrunk driving sentiment largely popularized by the formation of Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD). Both implementation of the DUI statutes and the publicity and societal dynamics surrounding the creation of MADD were found to be associated with reductions in subsequent alcohol-related fatal and injury accident rates, with evidence of more pronounced effects among injury accidents.

Drink-Driving Law Enforcement and the Legal Blood Alcohol Limit in New South Wales

Article

May 1994
ACCIDENT ANAL PREV

Ross Homel

This paper reports the results of a preliminary analysis of daily fatal crashes in New South Wales, Australia, between July 1975 and December 1986. The analysis unexpectedly uncovered a small but statistically significant decline in crashes coinciding with the introduction of a law lowering the legal blood alcohol concentration (BAC) from .08 to .05 g%. The original aim of the analysis was to develop for a larger study appropriate log-linear techniques to assess the impact of a range of government initiatives, including laws aimed at the drinking driver: increased penalties, the .05 law, and random breath testing (RBT). The analysis showed that RBT immediately reduced fatal crashes by 19.5% overall and by 30% during holiday periods, and that the .05 law, introduced two years before RBT, apparently reduced fatal crashes by 13% on Saturdays. There was no significant effect of the .05 law on any other day of the week, and there was no clear evidence that any other initiative had a statistically significant effect on accidents. Although the apparent impact of the .05 law was small, it is surprising that any effect was discernible, since the law was not extensively advertised and police enforcement was no more intense than is usual over Christmas. However, any effects of the .05 law may not have been sustained if RBT had not been introduced two years later.

The special deterrent effects of a jail sanction on first-time drunk drivers: A quasi-experimental study

Article

Nov 1993
ACCIDENT ANAL PREV

This study examines the special deterrent effects of alternative sanctions on first-time offenders convicted of driving while intoxicated (DWI). It uses a quasi-experimental design based on the fact that in Hennepin County, Minnesota, some judges did not comply with the judicial policy that mandated a two-day jail sentence for all first-time DWI offenders. Data were collected on all drunk driving cases adjudicated by two judges during an 11-month period. One judge was known to sentence few first offenders to jail; the other was reputed to sentence virtually all first offenders to jail. Of the 383 offenders sentenced by the two judges, 60 were, reconvicted within the 23-month follow-up period. Using judge as an indirect measure of the jail sanction, we found no statistically significant difference in the recidivism rates of persons sentenced by the "jail" and "no jail" judges. Nor did the sanction have a direct effect. After statistically controlling for offender characteristics and prior traffic record, there was no significant difference between those sentenced to a fine (large or small) with no jail and those who were given a two-day jail sentence plus a small fine. Thus, a two-day jail stay is found to be no more effective in deterring subsequent drunk driving by convicted first offenders than an alternative monetary sanction.

Are lower legal blood alcohol limits and a combination of sanctions desirable in reducing drunken driver-involved traffic fatalities and traffic accidents?

Article

Dec 1996
ACCIDENT ANAL PREV

In 1970 and 1978, a set of strict new countermeasures against drunk driving went in to effect in Japan. Analysis of official statistics of motor vehicle fatality data have indicated that alcohol involvement in fatal crashes has declined substantially in Japan since 1970. From the beginning of 1970 to the late 1980s and 1990s, public awareness of and tolerance for the problem of alcohol-impaired driving changed dramatically, as shown in this study. Further it seems that attitudes in Japan on drink driving have improved over the last 20 years or so, instep with a major program of government action. As well as being part of a long running campaign to reduce alcohol related road deaths and injuries, these accident savings are an important part of a national strategy which began in 1970, comprising a well structured legislative program introducing a lower legal limit, progressive penalties for those above the legal limit, over and above Police enforcement strategies underpinning the law and reinforcing the publicity massage. Enactment of the lower legal blood alcohol level with a combination of other severe sanctions is desirable for prevention of alcohol-related traffic casualties, DWI, and accidents, which is shown in this study. Finally, much of the current reduction in alcohol-related fatalities and morbidity reflects that Japanese society has largely endorsed alcohol impaired driving as a socially undesirable behavior. However, this study suggests that it is necessary for policy makers to understand that the DUI problem in Japan must be handled with diverse approaches, rather than relying exclusively on the deterrence based laws.

Alcohol Policies and Highway Vehicle Fatalities

Article

Sep 1996
J HEALTH ECON

Christopher Ruhm

This study investigates the impact of beer taxes and a variety of alcohol-control policies on motor vehicle fatality rates. Special attention is paid to omitted variables biases resulting from failing to adequately control for grassroots efforts to reduce drunk driving, the enactment of other laws which simultaneously operate to reduce highway fatalities, and the economic conditions existing at the time the legislation is passed. In the preferred models, most of the regulations have little or no impact on traffic mortality. By contrast, higher beer taxes are associated with reductions in crash deaths and this result is relatively robust across specifications.

Reducing Harmful Alcohol-Related Behaviors: Effective Regulatory Methods

Article

Jun 2000

This article examines the effects of tort liability, criminal law, administrative regulation, price and availability of alcohol, and personal and state characteristics on the decisions to engage in heavy episodic drinking and to drink and drive. Individual behavior data from the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveys (1984-95) were used in a logit analysis of the probability that a respondent engaged in heavy episodic drinking (n = 86,273), drinking and driving (n = 87,087) and drinking and driving if also a heavy episodic drinker (n = 22,261). Imposing tort liability on bars reduced self-reported incidents of drunk driving among all drinkers (p = .043) but did not reduce the probability of heavy episodic drinking or drinking and driving among heavy drinkers. In this first national study of the impact of social host liability, we found that such liability lowered the self-reported probability of heavy episodic drinking (p = .0004) and drinking and driving among all drinkers (p = .0005). Although several criminal and administrative regulations were also effective in reducing heavy episodic drinking and drunk driving, the imposition of tort liability represents a useful addition to the arsenal of alcohol-control policies.

The relationship of alcohol safety laws to drinking drivers in fatal crashes

Article

Aug 2000
ACCIDENT ANAL PREV

This paper presents an analysis of the relationships between the passage of key alcohol safety laws and the number of drinking drivers in fatal crashes. The study evaluated three major alcohol safety laws--administrative license revocation laws, 0.10 illegal per se, and 0.08 illegal per se laws--on the proportion of drinking drivers in fatal crashes. Drivers aged 21 and older in fatal crashes at two BAC levels--0.01-0.09 and 0.10 or greater--were considered separately. Drivers under age 21 were not included because they are affected by the Minimum Legal Drinking Age (MLDA) law. This study used data on drinking drivers in fatal crashes from the Fatality Analysis Reporting System (FARS) covering 16 years (1982-1997) for all 50 states and the District of Columbia. Also included in the study were such variables as per capita alcohol consumption and annual vehicle miles traveled (VMT), which could affect the number of alcohol-related crashes. The results indicate that each of the three laws had a significant relationship to the downward trend in alcohol-related fatal crashes in the United States over that period. This paper points out that this long-term trend is not the product of a single law. Instead, it is the result of the growing impact of several laws over time plus the affect of some factors not included in the model tested (such as the increasing use of sobriety checkpoints and the media's attention to the drinking-and-driving problem).

Raising the bar: Can increased statutory penalties deter drink-drivers?

Article

Oct 2004
ACCIDENT ANAL PREV

Suzanne Poynton

The rate of road accidents per 100,000 vehicles registered was examined before and after the statutory penalties for drink-driving offences were doubled in New South Wales (NSW), Australia. Interrupted time-series analyses found significant increases in three non-fatal accident series after the implementation of the new penalties. The observed increase in the rate of single-vehicle night-time accidents, the accident category most likely to be alcohol-related, was not expected and runs contrary to the anticipated deterrent effect of the new laws. The failure of this policy to have an impact on aggregate-level road accident rates is discussed.

The life cycle of the policy for preventing road accidents: An empirical example of the policy for reducing drunk driving crashes in Taipei

Article

Oct 2004
ACCIDENT ANAL PREV

The purpose of this paper is to examine the temporal variation of the effect of preventive policy on reducing traffic accidents. The life cycle theory was introduced to describe the safety effect of the intervening policy over time. Poisson regression models with dummy-based and time-based specifications were used to evaluate the effect of an intervening policy over an observation period following its implementation. The policy of "Criminal sanction for drunk driving (CSFDD)" in Taipei city was evaluated as an empirical example to determine whether the temporal variation of safety effect happened to the CSFDD policy. The study results showed that alcohol consumption, arresting the drunk driving offenders, and the implementation of the CSFDD were the significant factors affecting the rate of occurrence of fatal accidents involving drunk driving. The effect of the CSFDD policy appeared to be a rapid initial response followed by a lower rate of decay. The existence of the life cycle implies that employing different observation periods following the implementation of a specific policy to evaluate its performance may obtain different effects. The results of this study are crucial for policy evaluation. The effects of safety policy should be carefully interpreted in order to avoid misleading the relevant authorities in coming to the wrong conclusions and as such make the wrong decisions.

The prevention paradox, traffic safety, and driving-while-intoxicated treatment

Article

Sep 2004
AM J PREV MED

In San Juan County, New Mexico, a 28-day jail/treatment program for first-time driving-while-intoxicated (DWI) offenders was established in 1994 to reduce both DWI recidivism and alcohol-related crashes. This paper assesses the impact of the program on both outcomes. The data are composed of driving records of all people arrested for DWI in San Juan County from August 1994 through December 2001. Subsequent re-arrests and crashes were analyzed to compare people who had been sentenced to the jail/treatment program and those who had not. Kaplan-Meier survival curves and Cox proportional hazards regression analyses were used. Covariates included age, gender, blood alcohol content (BAC), number of prior arrests, and ethnicity (Native American, non-Hispanic white, and Hispanic). Re-arrest rates were significantly lower for the treatment than the nontreatment group. Each of the three major ethnic groups showed similar effects. This was not observed for subsequent alcohol-related crashes, possibly as a result of insufficient numbers. BAC and number of previous arrests were, however, significant risk factors for subsequent crashes. Finally, although BAC and previous arrests were important risk factors for subsequent crashes, the vast majority of subsequent alcohol-related crashes occurred among people in the intermediate risk ranges. The jail/treatment program is effective in reducing the probability of DWI re-arrests. The evidence with respect to crashes is equivocal. That most crashes occur to people in the intermediate risk range exemplifies the prevention paradox, and means that the courts, which deal most severely with high-risk individuals, cannot be expected to have a major impact on alcohol-related crashes.

Impact of Georgia's Teenage and Adult Driver Responsibility Act

Article

May 2006

General deterrence effects of U.S. statutory DUI fine and jail penalties: Long-term follow-up in 32 states

Abstract

No full-text available