More than 100 traffic offenders sentenced for driving under the influence who are presently serving the corrective supervision sentence as an alternative to imprisonment, have been evaluated since February 1994 to establish the rehabilitative effect of such a sentence. The offenders have been evaluated by means of an extensive test battery and psychological interviews. This data has been stored in qualitative and quantitative databases to provide information about human behaviour in the traffic environment. The following trends regarding rehabilitation surfaced: First offenders showed the best potential for rehabilitation. After about three repetitions of the same offence, however, the potential for rehabilitation declines rapidly. the potential for rehabilitation declines rapidly. The rehabilitative programmes and evaluation techniques presently in use, need to be simplified. Corrective supervision has only been implemented since 1991 in South Africa, but already it seems to provide a better option for learning and rehabilitation for traffic offenders than both imprisonment and the payment of traffic fines. (A)
Abstract