Citation

Ross HL. J. Crim. Justice 1994; 22(5): 437-444.

Copyright

(Copyright © 1994, Elsevier Publishing)

DOI

10.1016/0047-2352(94)90034-5

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

In 1990, the U.S. Supreme Court in the case of Michigan Department of State Police v. Sitz declared sobriety checkpoints constitutional in part because they were effective in reducing drunken driving. This report reviews the scientific literature on checkpoint effectiveness in order to evaluate the claim of deterrent accomplishments made in the briefs supporting the police. It concludes that studies available at the time of the initial trial were insufficient to support the claim, but that more recent studies lay a better foundation for believing that checkpoints can deter drunken driving. The Court's definition of effectiveness, however, turns out to have been based on checkpoints' yield of arrests rather than on considerations of deterrence.