Citation

Popkin CL, Stewart JR, Beckmeyer J, Martell C. Proc. Int. Counc. Alcohol Drugs Traffic Safety Conf. 1993; 1993: 1466-1470.

Copyright

(Copyright © 1993, The author(s) and the Council, Publisher International Council on Alcohol, Drugs and Traffic Safety)

DOI

unavailable

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

This paper reports an experiment in the state of North Carolina (NC), USA, to test the recurrence of DWI (driving while intoxicated) among four groups of second-time DWI offenders. All such offenders in NC receive a four-year hard licence suspension. At the end of the second year, they may apply for an administrative hearing, which has power to grant a conditional licence. Using data from the NC Driver History Files, a quasi-experimental design was used to examine the recidivism rates of the offenders in the following four groups: (1) Non-Applier Group, who never applied or completed the application process; (2) Denied Licence Group, who completed their applications, but were denied a conditional licence or refused the offer of a conditional licence with mandatory participation in the interlock programme; (3) Interlock Group, who obtained a conditional licence and had an ignition interlock installed on their cars; and (4) Conditional Licence Group, who obtained a conditional licence but were not required to participate in the interlock programme. The failure (recidivism) rates among these groups were 18.2%, 4.7%, 2.9%, and 5.2%, respectively. However, recidivism rates for the Interlock Group rose after full licences were restored to them and interlocks removed.