Recidivism Among Convicted Drinking Drivers: An Analysis of DUI Offenders

Over the last three decades, American public opinion has undergone an impressive and consistent trend regarding the significance of drinking and driving as a national safety issue. The level of public concern has resulted in stronger DUI laws, improved law enforcement, highly active voluntary groups such as MADD and more effective intervention programs. This complex of activities directed toward the DUI problem has had the effect of reducing the incidence of drinking and driving behaviors and, consequently, reducing injury and death on the nation's highways. While the scale of this problem has diminished, the magnitude and seriousness of drinking and driving is still substantial and will remain a high priority safety concern for the foreseeable future. Given the societal opposition to drinking and driving, it can be hypothesized that this harmful behavior is becoming restricted to a smaller and conceivably more dangerous population. One manner of defining such a high-risk group might be to identify those individuals who persist in drinking and driving to the extent that they receive multiple arrests and convictions as DUI offenders. This approach calls for serious scientific studies of recidivism. " Recidivism Among Convicted Drinking Drivers: An Analysis of DUI Offenders Referred to the Mississippi Alcohol Safety Education Program in 1992 " presents the findings of one such study. In this document, Dr. Ronald W. Snow reports the results of his research on recidivism of DUI offenders in the Mississippi population. His analysis is well conceived, methodologically sophisticated and carried out with appropriate intellectual caution. He provides a method of assessing the predictability of DUI re-arrests based upon such important diagnostic tools as the Mortimer-Filkens Instrument, blood alcohol content (BAC) and a comprehensive set of demographic factors. In addition to presenting this new information on the value of these measures, he also extends the analysis to the construction of a DUI Recidivism Risk Index. This uniquely valuable research contribution could provide the ground work for the development of intervention strategies based upon program elements designed and targeted to those individuals most likely to persist in dangerous DUI behaviors. Dr. Snow's analysis provides a context in which to estimate the impact of the Mississippi Alcohol Safety Education Program (MASEP). While Dr. Snow correctly points out that his research does not constitute a rigorous evaluation of MASEP effectiveness, it does inform the reader about recidivistic behaviors of MASEP students. By contrasting the recidivism of those offenders who …