Citation

Winfree LT, Giever DM. J. Crim. Justice 2000; 28(1): 13-21.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2000, Elsevier Publishing)

DOI

10.1016/S0047-2352(99)00028-8

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

In 1995, Municipal Court Judge Stephen Ryan initiated one of the nation's first drug courts specifically designed for alcoholic driving-while-intoxicated (DWI) offenders in Las Cruces, New Mexico. Beginning in January 1997, Judge Ryan allowed researchers unrestricted access to defendants in this court. The researchers collected survey data from three primary groups of convicted DWI offenders. Each group was created by the court's classification staff: (1) nonalcoholic first- and second-time DWI offenders, (2) alcoholic first- and second-time DWI offenders, and (3) chronic three-time (or more) DWI offenders. This exploratory study addressed a single question: How different are the personal characteristics, crime histories, and attitudes of the three offender groups? The analysis revealed that the three groups were different in ways that were expected, given their different levels of formal justice system processing, and ways that could prove troubling for public policy analysts and practitioners.