In the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG) all applicants for a driver's licence since 1 november 1986 who commit a driving while intoxicated (DWI) offence within the first 2 years of their driving practice will have to submit to a special treatment programme which has been developed on the basis of experience with programmes for first and repeat offenders, conducted in the FRG since 1978. The administration and legal conditions of the treatment programme are determined; the programme consists of 2- h preliminary encounter and three group sessions of 3- h each. The lowest number of participants is six, the total must not exceed 12. Participation is mandatory and there is no assessment before or during participation. The participants will, to some degree, be first offenders who do not have much practice in drinking and driving and to some extent young drivers who have already developed consolidated behavioural patterns in the drinking- driving conflict. Finally there will be a small proportion of participants who abuse alcohol or behave unsocially and who may have many previous convictions for offencses other than traffic offences. Moderators are traffic psychologists experienced in carrying out special treatment programmes for DWI recidivists. The treatment model, its goals and methods are presented in this paper; problems which have to be expected and the solutions provided are discussed.
Samenvatting