Does the Punishment Fit the Crime? Drug Users and Drunk Drivers, Questions of Race and Class

• NCJ Number: 157363
• Author(s): C Shine; M Mauer
• Date Published: 1993
• Length: 40 pages
• Corporate Author: Sentencing Project
• Sale Source: Sentencing Project
• Publication Type: Survey
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America
• Note: DCC

Annotation

This report discusses the different responses by the criminal justice system to drunk drivers and drug offenders.

Abstract

The study found that both drunk drivers and drug offenders cause great harm to society through increased health care costs, violence, and deaths and injuries. However, drunk drivers, who are predominantly white males, and drug offenders, who are predominantly low-income blacks and Hispanics, receive dramatically different treatment in the criminal justice system; the former are generally treated as misdemeanants and punished with fines, license suspensions, and community service, while the latter are charged as felons and incarcerated if convicted. National antidrug policies have resulted in increasingly large numbers of blacks and Hispanics being arrested, convicted, and imprisoned. The paper includes recommendations to eliminate the current racial bias evident in public policy toward substance abuse. 8 tables, 1 figure, 70 notes, and 1 appendix