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Drunk-driving recidivism: predicting factors from arrest context and case disposition
1New York State Office of Alcoholism and Substance Abuse Services, Albany 12203, USA.
Objective:
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.
Method:
Complete 1989, 1990 and 1991 traffic ticket files from the New York State police were the baseline data for the study.
Results:
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.
Conclusions:
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.