Treatment Rehabilitation Countermeasures for Drinking

The primary goal of rehabilitative programs for drunk driving offenders is to reduce the probability of subsequent drinking and driving. Punishment, such as licensing penalties, lines, and incarceration, is also designed to prevent subsequent drinking and driving either by making the consequences of arrest so unpleasant and costly as to discourage the offense or by eliminating the offenders ’ capacity to drive (by putting them in jail or by invalidating their drivers ’ licenses). Rehabilitation is based on one of two assumptions: That offenders drink and drive because they lack knowledge about the effects of alcohol, the potential consequences of drinking and driving, and strategies for avoiding drinking and driving; or that drinking and driving results from an abusive, addictive, or otherwise uncontrolled pattern of alcohol consumption. Therefore, offenders must receive education to help them ration-ally choose not to drink and drive or they must receive treatment so they can eliminate abusive drinking and thus stop drinking and driving. The goals of rehabilitation are certainly important-almost one-third of convicted drinking drivers have a previous offense (Sweedler and Smith 1984). Preventing some part of this recidivism is desirable. From the perspective of individual offenders, gaining information and skills and receiving treatment to allow them to avoid drinking and driving can save them from additional expense, humiliation, inconvenience, and potential tragedy. Rehabilitation can also have positive effects on other areas of the offenders’ lives if abusive drinking is reduced. It is important to emphasize that even programs that are extremely effective in reducing recidivism cannot be expected to have major effects on traffic safety. Reed (1981) estimated that even if all persons arrested for drunk driving were prevented from ever combining drinking and driving again, fatal crashes would decrease by only 3 percent. Other efforts aimed at prevention or general deterrence such as well-publicized enforcement crackdowns have the potential to save many more lives