The research examines the attitudes of the participants about drink driving behaviour, drink driving laws, deterrence and punishment. Five focus groups of drink driving offenders were held with participants ranging in age from 19 to 63. All the participants were male except two females, one in her early twenties and one in her late forties. The number of arrests for drink driving ranged from one to eight offences, with readings ranging from low (.02) to very high (.25). Some participants appeared to respond to deterrents, however many saw being arrested, fined and losing their licence as merely an annoying part of their lives. Recidivists have developed strategies to avoid or lessen the risk of being detected. Some defend their behaviour as being less threatening than, in their view, more serious crimes. The results confirm that deterrence is not working for a large section of the drink driving population and that other methods are needed to prevent their drink driving behaviour. (a) For the covering entry of this conference, please see ITRD abstract no. E202275.
Samenvatting