NCJ Number
212289
Journal
British Journal of Criminology Volume: 45 Issue: 6 Dated: November 2005 Pages: 914-937
Date Published
November 2005
Length
24 pages
Annotation
This article reviews studies that have evaluated the effectiveness of repressive police programs in a relatively limited time frame to prevent road accidents.
Abstract
Studies show that road accidents are among the main causes of death among 15 to 44 year olds in Western countries, with studies indicating that human factors, specifically deviant driving habits having a considerable impact on the number of accidents. The prevention of these reckless automobile accidents is the responsibility of police forces. This article reviews 38 studies in order to assess the effect of the programs in place to prevent road accidents and see whether they resulted in significant road accident reductions and to identify which types of police programs were most effective and under which conditions. This review allows the empirical validation of the deterrence theory, which is one of the foundations of law enforcement functions undertaken by police forces and criminal courts. The article begins by detailing how the deterrence theory fits in the public interventions field, as well as explains how punishment can achieve deterrence. Deterrence theory applied to the road delinquency context stresses that the certainty of being arrested maintains a negative relationship with targeted deviant driving behaviors. Two main conclusions drawn from this article include: (1) all repressive police programs led to a significant reduction in severe accidents and (2) different intervention types bring similar results. No one intervention seems more effective than the others. Tables and references