NCJ Number
180725
Journal
Violence and Victims Volume: 14 Issue: 3 Dated: 1999 Pages: 323-336
Date Published
1999
Length
14 pages
Annotation
This study examines protective behavior and potential sources of self- and other-protection against drunk drivers.
Abstract
A substantial proportion of citizens took precautions to avoid becoming victims of drunk drivers and seemed fairly willing to attempt to protect others from victimization. Measures of perceived collective security - police and judges' effectiveness - were either inconsistently related to self-protection, or their relationships were not significant. Fear of becoming a victim of a drunk driver was most consistently related to avoidance activities. However, the relationships between prevention and various aspects of the fear/victimization model might be situation specific. Engaging in protective behavior because of fear or heightened perceptions of victimization risk is consistent with a conception of drunk drivers as reckless and antisocial. The self-protective actions that people took to avoid drunk driver strangers may have been structured by such an image, but this image may not have been present when they avoided victimization by an acquaintance. Tables, notes, references