There are almost no studies of the geographic distribution of DWI offenders. Basic information such as whether DWI offenders are randomly distributed in the population or tend to come from specific neighborhoods could have important implications for DWI prevention and interventions. If geographic clusters are identified, anti-DWI efforts can be targeted at specific areas, whereas this type of geographic targeting would not be appropriate if the DWI population is randomly distributed. The objective of this study is to determine whether the home locations of DWI offenders are spatially clustered by using appropriate spatial analytic methodology. All DWI offenders (i.e., any drinking-driving conviction) from 1990-1994 in Erie County, New York form the database for this study. Over 15,500 DWI offender home addresses were geocoded and allocated to census tracts and block groups. A spatial scan methodology based on a case-control approach was used to determine whether census tracts or block groups formed significant geographic clusters. Results based on the analysis of DWI offenders at the census tract level and block group level identified a number of statistically significant spatial clusters. The geographic analysis found that specific high and low rate areas could be identified based on official DWI conviction information. The clusters based on block groups provided a refinement of the clusters found at the tract level. The geographic distribution of DWI offenders is clustered and not random, which could be used to target intervention programs. (Author/publisher) For the covering abstract of the conference see ITRD Abstract No. E201067.
Abstract