This primer is the result of a partnership between principals from the Traffic Injury Research Foundation (TIRF), Douglas Mental Health University Institute and McGill University, under funding from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) in Transdisciplinary Studies in Driving While Impaired Onset, Persistence, Prevention and Treatment. The purpose of the report is to summarize and transfer available research about impaired driving and risk assessment to practitioners who manage or supervise impaired drivers or deliver programs for this population. The report was informed by input from criminal justice practitioners and remedial program staff across Canada and is available in individual, downloadable sections to enable users to focus on specific topics of interest. The report offers an overview of available research regarding the profile of male and female first offenders in relation to repeat offenders and highlights the inability of existing theories of behaviour to adequately disentangle the heterogeneous nature of the impaired driving offender population. It also provides a summary of relevant risk factors that have been linked to repeat impaired driving offences, while acknowledging some of the key limitations of the research in this field. In addition, the report briefly reviews some of the available tools used to assess risk, available treatment interventions that are applicable to impaired drivers, the research relating to their effectiveness, and current best practices for the treatment and rehabilitation of impaired driving offenders in remedial driver licensing programs. The intent of this report is to provide a high level review of available knowledge that can benefit front-line practitioners working both in the remedial driver licensing system and the criminal justice system. (Author/publisher)
Samenvatting