NCJ Number
115277
Date Published
1988
Length
86 pages
Annotation
Findings and recommendations from the youth-impaired-driving public hearings in Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Fort Worth, and Seattle focus on school responsibilities, extracurricular activities, community responsibilities, work-based activities, enforcement, licensing, adjudication, supervision, and legislation.
Abstract
A central conclusion of the hearings is that despite the spread of activist groups, the proliferation of programs, and the enactment of new legislation, young people continue to drink and drive with alarming frequency. To counter this serious problem, witnesses at the hearings emphasized a systemwide approach that combines prevention, deterrence, and treatment/intervention. Preventive education must start at an early age, before youth are first confronted with the decision to use alcohol or other drugs. Education should provide children with information on alcohol and drug use, and it must also teach them the skills needed to act on that information and resist pressure from friends and family to use drugs. In addition to emphasizing formal classroom instruction by qualified teachers, educators should also focus on peer education and positive peer pressure. Such peer influences might be exerted through safety clubs and support groups. Hearing witnesses complained of a lack of enforcement of drunk driving laws against youth compared to adults. Witnesses suggested that police target youthful impaired driving by concentrating enforcement patrols on the hours when most impaired driving by youth occurs. Stronger dispositions of drunk driving cases involving youth were also recommended, since such dispositions are typically mild and have little deterrent value. Appended list of panelists and presenters from each of the hearings.