Drivers Who Drink and Rational Choice: Random Breath Testing and the Process of Deterrence (From Routine Activity and Rational Choice: Advances in Criminological Theory, Volume 5, P 59-84, 1993, Ronald V. Clarke and Marcus Felson, eds. - See NCJ-159998)

• NCJ Number: 160002
• Author(s): R Homel
• Date Published: 1993
• Length: 26 pages
• Sale Source: Transaction Publishers
• Publication Type: Survey
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America

Annotation

This chapter presents a model of the deterrence process that explains the success of the random breath testing program (RBT) implemented in New South Wales (Australia).

Abstract

This model is derived from the literature on deterrence, as well as assumptions made about how RBT would affect drunk driving behavior; the original model has been modified in light of the results of empirical research conducted in New South Wales and other States, which has shown that RBT has had a causal impact on fatal automobile crashes. The main strength of the model is that it is grounded in a specific ongoing legal intervention that may be implemented in various forms, but which always targets the single offense of drunk driving. Because the model is offense-specific, it is possible to develop detailed concepts and measures that tend to be ignored in more general theoretical formulations of deterrence. A comparison of this model with similar models for other offenses can make a significant contribution to the development of a general theory of deterrence. 2 figures, 4 notes, and 49 references