An Evaluation of Washington State’s 1979 Driving While Intoxicated (DWI) Laws
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1984-12-01
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Edition:Final report
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Abstract:In 1979 Washington State passed legislation establishing several new provisions for dealing with the drinking driver. Among these were the establishment of a 'per se' definition of DWI as driving or being in physical control of a motor vehicle with a BAC of .10 or higher, a mandatory one day jail sentence for first-time DWI offenders and 7 days for repeat offenders and mandatory attendance at an Alcohol Information School for all first offenders. To evaluate the effectiveness of these laws as a specific and a general deterrent to driving after drinking, two investigations were performed. General deterrence effects (Study 1) were explored by a time-series analysis of monthly alcohol-related ac cident data from 41 cities and 15 counties for the time-period 1977 through 1982. Specific deterrence effects (Study 2) were investigated by a pre-/post- legislation comparison of recidivism rates from samples of first, repeat, and non-DWI offenders. From the sample of counties and cities in Study 1 there is evidence that the law, as implemented in these sites, has initiated a general deterrence that resulted in a significant downturn in alcohol-related accidents. In 1981, approximately one year after an increase in the number of arrest$, convictions, and mandatory jail terms served, there has been a 25 percent decrease in the number of alcohol-related accidents. In the year immediately following the implementation of the new laws no deter rence was identified. There is no evidence in Study 2 that the new laws, as implemented, were effective in dissuading convicted DWI offenders from repeating their offenses or reducing accident involvement. Deficiencies in the "system" responsible for implementing the new laws may have limited the deterrence impact (Study 3). /Abstract from report summary page/
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