Drunk driving continues to be a serious public health concern and a threat to public safety in the United States. In recent years, greater efforts have been made to enhance assessment practices for those offenders convicted of DWI in order to increase the identification of predicting which offenders are most likely to continue to drive impaired from those who are less likely to engage in this behaviour. Under a cooperative agreement with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, the American Probation and Parole Association (APPA) prepared this report on their development of a screening tool, Impaired Driving Assessment (IDA) to identify a DWI offender’s risk of engaging in future conduct of impaired driving, and to help determine the most effective community supervision that will reduce such risk. APPA conducted a literature, analysed assessment responses of DWI offenders, and interviewed experts in the field of impaired driving research and treatment to provide guidelines in selecting the measurement components of the most appropriate instrument. APPA identified several major risk areas of DWI recidivism. An individual’s past behaviour stood out across multiple risk areas, including prior DWI and non?DWI involvement in the justice system and prior involvement with alcohol and other drugs. In addition, resistance to and non?compliance with current and past involvement in the justice system was identified as a major risk area. These identified areas informed the inclusion of certain items in the IDA. APPA pilot test IDA with DWI probationers in Brown County Adult Probation, Minnesota; Nicollet County Adult Probation, Minnesota; Westchester County Probation Department, New York; and Tarrant County Community Supervision and Corrections Department, Texas. The development of IDA and the pilot test results are shared in this document. (Author/publisher)
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