Educational measures or rehabilitation courses are intended to teach road users to avoid inappropriate road user behaviour. Such courses are intended to raise awareness of the causes and risks related to inappropriate behaviour and present opportunities for behavioural adaptation to avoid problems. Participants have to pay for these courses themselves.
In the Netherlands, there are rehabilitation courses for alcohol offenders: EMA (Educational Measure Alcohol) and LEMA (Light Educational Measure Alcohol). LEMA targets novice drivers caught at drink driving with a BAC of 0.2 to 0.5 ‰ and experienced drivers with a BAC of 0.8. to 1.0 ‰. EMA is imposed in case of still higher BACs or in case of repeat offences. Both courses address the risks of alcohol use in traffic and the need to decouple alcohol use and traffic participation. During the courses, participants exchange experiences and complete assignments, both at home and at the training location. The course ends with a two-hour conversation with the trainer. LEMA takes two afternoons or two mornings with a two-week interval. The two-day EMA course spans a period of seven weeks.
In a study, the Scientific Research and Documentation Centre (Dutch abbreviation: WODC) did not find any demonstrable effect of LEMA on repeat offences (both repeat traffic offences in general and repeat offences concerning drink driving) [45]. A WODC study about EMA effectiveness is expected to appear in late 2019.
Apart from (L)EMA, there is also an Educational Measure Behaviour and Traffic (Dutch abbreviation EMG). This measure is specifically intended for drivers who have repeatedly displayed inappropriate driving behaviour during one drive. A one-off serious overspeeding offence may also result in the road user’s referral to EMG. The WODC study [45] showed that within two years 30% of the drivers completing an EMG in 2013 was faced with the justice system for any offence, 20% committed a new traffic offence and 12% were sentenced after a new EMG-related offence.
An overview of international studies of the effects of offender rehabilitation programmes [46] showed large effect variations. It concluded that the effectiveness of rehabilitation programmes increases when they are coupled with a driving licence measure, when a previous problem diagnosis and selection is applied, when road users are coached individually, when road users are well able to monitor their own behaviour, and when they are approached in an emphatic instead of a confrontational way.
A meta-analysis of six recent international studies shows that drink driving rehabilitation programmes may reduce the number of repeat offenders by 49% [47], provided such programmes are clearly aimed at behaviour plans that may assist an offender threatening to relapse in alcohol abuse, and provided that they entail several weeks of coaching.
Also see the archived SWOV fact sheet Rehabilitation courses for road users and the question about EMA and LEMA in SWOV fact sheet Driving under the influence of alcohol.
