This study examines the effect on recidivism of a relicensing system imposed upon drink driving offenders. The system requires most first offenders with a BAC of less than 0.15 to attend an education course, and requires multiple offenders, or single offenders with a BAC of 0.15 or greater, to attend an education course and pass an assessment for alcohol dependence before relicensing. Recidivism in drivers who were relicensed before the programme was introduced was compared to those relicensed after the introduction of the programme. Cox Regression analyses on 56,699 cases from the Victorian licensing data base showed substantial decreases in recidivism over all categories of offender after adjusting for baseline and demographic characteristics. Although the design is confounded by temporal changes in the context of drink driving over the study period, there was indirect evidence suggesting that the intervention was effective. (A)
Abstract