Alcohol: Problems and Solutions

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Hardcore Drunk Driving Can Be Reduced with DWI/DUI Courts

Over two-thirds of drunken driving fatalities in a recent year in the U.S. involved a driver with a blood alcohol concentration (BAC) of .15 or higher. That's about twice the legal limit. DWI offenders tend to fall into two categories:

1. People who have made a poor decision and driven after having had too much alcohol to drink.
   • These drivers tend to have relatively low blood alcohol
     concentrations (BACs)
   • These people are usually dissuaded from the crime in the future
     by punishment
2. People who are addicted to alcohol (alcoholics) who are hard-core
   repeat offenders.
   • These drivers tend to have very high and dangerous BACs.
   • These people are very resistant to changing their drunken driving
     behavior

Convinced that we can't jail our way out of the hard-core repeat offender drunk driving problem, some judges have created DWI courts (sometimes called DUI courts). These innovative courts use substance-abuse interventions and treatment with repeat defendants who plead guilty of driving while intoxicated.

DWI courts are designed to address the root cause of the hard-core drunk driver -- addiction. The evidence indicates that DWI courts are highly effective and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration actively supports them as a major way to reduce the problem of high BAC repeat offenders.

View or download the Hardcore Drunk Driving Judicial Guide. National Drug Court Institute.