Successful prevention and rehabilitation efforts for DWI offenders are contingent on the creation of deterrence and intervention programs that distinguish between different types of persistent drinking-drivers. The current study (n=642) used ordinal and multinomial regression to determine relevant characteristics for comparisons between first vs. second, and second vs. multiple (3 or more) DWI offender groups. Results from the ordinal logit modelling suggested linear relationships for the following: age, test refusal, driving infractions, crashes, attitudes concerning DWI, internal locus of control, family history for DWI, and score on the action subscale for the stages of change. The multinomial regression found seven significant and six marginal effects for the first vs. second comparison, and nine significant and seven marginal effects for the second vs. multiple comparison. The only common measures were locus of control and driving inhibition. The results suggest that second and multiple offenders do not necessarily have similar characteristics. Furthermore, the fact there were a number of characteristics that appeared to distinguish between the second and multiple offenders suggest there is a potential for early identification of the persistent drinking-driver.
Abstract