THE DETERIORATION OF DETERRENCE EFFECTS OF DRIVING LEGISLATION: HAVE WE BEEN GIVING WRONG SIGNALS TO POLICYMAKERS?

This paper suggests that the apparently observed initial success of legislation to control drunken driving accidents by law enforcement and sanctions, followed by a return of accident levels to initial trends may be an artifact of failure to properly model the accident process. The point is illustrated by simulating a model of accidents in which drunken driving is controllable with a change in laws. It shows that this control effect can easily be swamped by other plausible accident inducing forces. Finally, it is argued that the costs of failing to maintain efforts to control drunken driving may be greater than the social costs of maintaining high enforcement levels and stiff penalties.

• Availability:
  • Find a library where document is available. Order URL: http://worldcat.org/issn/00472352
• Corporate Authors:

  Pergamon Press, Incorporated

  Headington Hill Hall
  Oxford OX30BW,    
• Authors:
  • Votey Jr, H L
• Publication Date: 1984

Media Info

• Features: Appendices; Figures; References; Tables;
• Pagination: p. 115-130
• Serial:
  • Journal of Criminal Justice
  • Volume: 12
  • Issue Number: 2
  • Publisher: Elsevier Science
  • ISSN: 0047-2352

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Costs; Drunk drivers; Drunk driving; Laws; Mathematical models; Penalties; Safety; Traffic crashes; Traffic law enforcement
• Uncontrolled Terms: Deterrence; Models
• Subject Areas: Finance; Highways; Law; Safety and Human Factors; I10: Economics and Administration; I83: Accidents and the Human Factor;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 00395970
• Record Type: Publication
• Source Agency: National Highway Traffic Safety Administration
• Report/Paper Numbers: HS-038 175
• Files: HSL, TRIS, USDOT
• Created Date: Jul 31 1985 12:00AM