Citation

Snortum JR. Eval. Program Plann. 1988; 11(3): 279-294.

Affiliation

Claremont McKenna College, USA.

Copyright

(Copyright © 1988, Elsevier Publishing)

DOI

10.1016/0149-7189(88)90023-7

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

The literature on the impact of drunk driving policies is in a state of flux. Causal assessments of the effects of increased legal threat have generally revealed only a temporary suppression of alcohol-impaired driving. And yet, there is also "circumstantial" evidence of stable compliance in Scandinavia and of a relatively long-term decline in drinking-driving casualties in the United States. Moreover, there is scattered evidence that we may have underestimated the capacity of heavy drinkers to exercise drinking-driving control. In a further examination of these divergent findings, the present paper provides a "contextual analysis" of the theoretical and methodological assumptions which seem to undergird assessments of drunk driving policy. It is concluded that most of the contradictions are not inherent in the evidence but reside, instead, in the epistemological assumptions that are brought to bear on the evidence.