The author criticises the `dominant paradigm' for reducing drink-driving, and proposes an alternative `prevention approach'. In the dominant paradigm, drink-driving appears to be only criminal, deviant behaviour by a small minority of drivers; it is caused by personal irresponsibility, and should be deterred by arresting, prosecuting, and punishing offenders. It fails to understand the social causes of social problems, including drunken driving. It ignores the fact that drivers are encouraged to drink and drive by the situations in which they find themselves, where drinking is accepted and there are few transport alternatives to driving. Its deterrent effect is countered by opposing messages from peer groups and mass media. The prevention approach is based mainly on the `challenging paradigm', which understands the causes of social problems as lying in institutions and uses a public health criterion of programme effectiveness, the reduction of fatalities and injuries. It sees the main causes of drunken driving as the recreational role of drinking and a car-based transport system. It advocates two types of measures: (1) alcohol policy, to consume less alcohol in a drinking society; and (2) transport policy, to drive less in a drinking society.
Abstract