Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-2plfb Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-24T23:38:42.587Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Jail Sentences for Driving While Intoxicated in Chicago: A Judicial Policy that Failed

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 July 2024

Leon S. Robertson
Affiliation:
Insurance Institute for Highway Safety
Robert F. Rich
Affiliation:
University of Chicago
H. Laurence Ross
Affiliation:
University of Denver
Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

Core share and HTML view are not available for this content. However, as you have access to this content, a full PDF is available via the ‘Save PDF’ action button.

Excessive drinking is involved in over one-half of the motor vehicle associated fatalities in the United States (Department of Transportation, 1968). Various means have been suggested, and some tried, to curb these losses. In only a few cases have countermeasures against driving while intoxicated been subjected to scientifically acceptable evaluation as to effectiveness.

In one such study, Barmack and Payne (1964b) used an information program with administrative review and psychiatric referral in an attempt to reduce alcohol-related crashes by airmen at an Air Force base. Based on their earlier studies (1964a) showing various types of stress-related and deviant behavior associated with driving while intoxicated, the image of the intoxicated driver as "sick" was communicated in meetings, on bulletin boards, and in the base newspaper. Airmen who lost time because of injury in a privately-owned vehicle had their service records reviewed, and evidence of "ineffective behavior" could result in discharge or psychiatric referral. The psychiatrist could then recommend a medical discharge, suggest psychiatric therapy, or take no action.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © 1973 Law and Society Association.

Footnotes

AUTHORS' NOTE: The comments and assistance of D. T. Campbell, G. V. Glass, the police departments and coroners' offices of Chicago and Milwaukee, and the staff of the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety are gratefully acknowledged, The study was sponsored by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety.

References

BARMACK, J.E. and D.E., PAYNE (1964b) “The Lackland Accident Countermeasure Experiment,“ pp. 665673 in W., HADDON Jr., EA, SUCHMAN, and D., KLEIN (eds.) Accident Research. Harper and Row.Google Scholar
BARMACK, J.E. (1964a) “Injury-Producing Motor Vehicle Accidents Among Airmen,” pp. 504522 in W., HADDON Jr., E.A., SUCHMAN, and D., KLEIN (eds.) Accident Research. Harper and Row.Google Scholar
CALAHAN, D. (1970) Problem Drinkers. New York: Jossey-Bass.Google Scholar
CAMPBELL, D.T. (1969) “Reforms as Experiments,” 24 American Psychologist 409.Google Scholar
CAMPBELL, D.T. and H.L., ROSS (1968) “The Connecticut Crackdown on Speeding,” 3 Law and Society Review 55.Google Scholar
DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION (1968) “1968 Alcohol and Highway Safety Report,” Committee Print (Committee on Public Works U.S. House of Representatives), 90th Congress, Second Session, U.S. Government Printing Office.Google Scholar
FIELD, A.C. Jr. (1971) “The Drinking Driver: Chicago's Quest for a New Ethic,” 19 Traffic Digest and Review 1.Google Scholar
INSURANCE INSTITUTE FOR HIGHWAY SAFETY (1971) “Pre-arrest Testing Now Allowed in Seven States,” 17 Status Report 6.Google Scholar
JOKSCH, H.C. and H., WUERDEMANN (1970) “Estimating the Effects of Crash Phase Injury Countermeasures,” Hartford: The Travelers Research Corporation.Google Scholar
KELLEHER, E.J. (1970) “A Diagnostic Evaluation of Four Hundred Drinking Drivers,” The Psychiatric Institute, Circuit Court of Cook County.Google Scholar
ROSS, H.L., D.T., CAMPBELL, and G.V., GLASS (1970) “Determining the Social Effects of a Legal Reform: The British ‘Breathalyser’ Crackdown of 1967,” 13 American Behavioral Scientist 493.Google Scholar
TINTNER, G. (1952) Econometrics. New York: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.Google Scholar
WALLER, J.A. (1967) “Drinking Drivers and Driving Drinkers: The Need for Multiple Approaches to Accidents Involving Alcohol,” in M., SELZER, P., GIKAS and D.F., HUELKE (eds.) The Prevention of Highway Injury. Highway Safety Research Institute.Google Scholar