NCJ Number
74832
Date Published
1979
Length
118 pages
Annotation
This study examines the efficacy of problem drinker driver rehabilitation as a viable addition, or alternative, to traditional court punitive sanctions for driving while intoxicated.
Abstract
An experimental design using a control group and a treatment group was used to analyze two groups of clients. The first group included regular clients of South Dakota's Alcohol Safety Action Project (ASAP) clients, who were randomly assigned to treatment or control after January 1974. The second group was a subset of ASAP clients who became part of the national Short-Term Rehabilitation (STR) study. The treatment outcome measures were recidivism, which was analyzed with a survival rate methodology, and the recently developed questionnaire and interview scale scores measuring certain aspects of life activity. The recidivism comparisons were based on cohorts of clients formed quarterly with a followup period of 15 quarters. No evidence was found to suggest that rehabilitation made any difference in post-treatment drunk driving behevior. An evaluation of the questionnaire and interview scale scores found that most of the scales were not good discriminators of drinking status and were therefore not likely to reflect change in post-treatment behavior. Followup comparisons between treatment and control groups showed no differences. Tables, statistical data, and graphs are provided in the text. An appendix presents the survey instruments. Seven references are provided. (Author abstract modified).