| This study assessed the impact of Pennsylvania's zero-tolerance juvenile drunk driving law. Enacted in Pennsylvania on August 01, 1996, the law lowered the Blood Alcohol Concentration (from .10 mg/ml to .02 mg/ml) necessary to charge a juvenile (under age 21) with the offense of drunk driving. The intent of the law, which was enacted nationally, was to lower motor vehicle fatality accident rates involving juveniles who consumed alcohol and then drove.; Using interrupted time-series designs (ITS) two outcome measures (PA juvenile drunk driving arrest rates and PA juvenile alcohol-related motor vehicle fatality accident rates) were used to assess the law's impact. Additional ITS designs, as well as informal, semi-structured interviews with law enforcement supervisors and an archival data review (various newspapers published within Pennsylvania) also were employed to control for validity threats to the research findings.; The data indicated that the law was ineffective in reducing juvenile alcohol-related motor vehicle fatality accident rates. In both Pennsylvania and the control state of Ohio, the data revealed that over the seven year span after the law was initiated juvenile alcohol-related motor vehicle fatality accident rates increased slightly (statistically insignificant), mirroring the effect of juvenile non-alcohol-related motor vehicle fatality accident rates.; The data further revealed that monthly juvenile drunk driving arrest rates in both Pennsylvania and Ohio significantly increased (p < .000) after the law was enacted, but the perceived increase in certainty and severity of punishment failed to deter juvenile drivers from drinking and driving. A brief policy analysis is offered as to why deterrence theory failed to reduce incidents of juvenile drunk driving, along with policy recommendations about how to reduce juvenile alcohol related incidents and accidents by taking an educational approach to juvenile alcohol use instead of a punitive approach. |
