NCJ Number
142929
Journal
Criminal Justice and Behavior Volume: 20 Issue: 2 Dated: (June 1993) Pages: 174-189
Date Published
1993
Length
16 pages
Annotation
The impact of a 12-week group therapy treatment program for drunk-driving offenders on drunk-driving rearrest rates, self-reported drinking, and self-reported drinking and driving was assessed.
Abstract
The 205 subjects were divided into those who had completed the program (150), those who had been selected for treatment but had appeared only for the evaluation (37), and those who had dropped out after some treatment involvement (18). The 37 subjects who had attended only the evaluation were used as a comparison group in the evaluation of treatment impact. The program consisted of 12 weekly group therapy sessions of 90 minutes each, with individual therapy available if necessary. The treatment focused on the impact of alcohol on the quality of the clients' lives. Findings show that individuals with a criminal history, excluding drunk-driving arrests, were more than twice as likely as those with no criminal history to be rearrested for drunk driving within a 24-month period. The higher drunk-driving recidivism rate for individuals with a prior criminal record was consistent across the dropout and treatment-completed subgroups; however, for individuals with no criminal history, the treatment-completed subgroup showed a significantly lower rate of recidivism than the dropouts. Follow-up self-report measures of frequency of drinking behavior showed similar differences in criminal history. The results suggest that consideration of drunk-driving subgroups, specifically criminal history, may be important when assessing the impact of intervention and treatment strategies. 1 table, 1 figure, 7 notes, and 30 references