Assessing Alcohol Problems in Female DWI Offenders
This paper presents a study which examined the severity of alcohol problems in a sample of 812 women convicted of Driving While Intoxicated (DWI) and enrolled in the Drinking Driver Program (DDP) in New York state. The DDP is a voluntary, seven week educational program targeted primarily toward first time DWI offenders. Approximately 50% of eligible offenders elect to attend the program, which provides them with a conditional driver's license. Participants in the study filled out a questionnaire which asked a number of questions drawn from established measures of alcohol and drug use and abuse, psychosocial correlates and markers of substance abuse, and psychosocial functioning. The majority of women who elected to participate in the study were white, Catholic, employed full time, and had at least some college education. Over 40% were married and under the age of 30. Participants ranged in age range from 18 to 77 years.
Women
in the dependent group also endorsed more
hostility items, and indicated they felt less
in control of their lives and less competent
interpersonally than women in the other two
groups. Women in the dependent group also
reported more sensation seeking behavior and
psychiatric symptoms, such as depression and
anxiety. Women in the abuse group appeared
significantly worse than the no diagnosis
group on all the psychological variables
except sensation seeking.
The authors conclude that not all women arrested for a DWI offense can be described as having an alcohol-related diagnosis. They note that women diagnosed with an alcohol problem often have accompanying psychosocial difficulties which increase in severity as severity of the diagnosis increases. The authors recommend that women DWI offenders be carefully screened across multiple domains to accurately identify alcohol and other problems.
As more and more women drink and drive, there will be an ever-expanding body of knowledge tailored to defending female DUI / DWI defendants. There is no question that women are entitled to equal rights under the law; it is now up to skilled drunk driving defense lawyers to ensure that they receive them.
1996, volume 20, number 3, pp. 434-439
Authors: Kathleen A. Parks, Thomas H. Nochajski,
William F. Wieczorek, & Brenda A. Miller