TESTING DETERRENCE: THE EFFECTS OF A DWI LAW AND PUBLICITY CAMPAIGNS

A proliferation of laws intended to "get tough" with criminals is being enacted across the country. These laws include changes from indeterminate to determinate sentencing which includes presumptive or mandatory sentences. They are aimed at curbing the activities of specific types of offenders. Popular targets for mandatory sentencing are career criminals, drinking drivers, and offenders who use a gun while committing a crime. In a very real sense, the provisions of "get tough" laws increase the tariff for doing criminal business.;Deterrence is a difficult theory to test empirically but driving while intoxicated (DWI) offenses are deemed particularly appropriate for research into the theory. During the last ten years, sensitivity to the limitations of a single methodological approach to test theory has led to the increasing practice of combining or "triangulating" quantitative and qualitative methods and/or data.;This research tests the impact of stringent DWI legislation and publicity campaigns on alcohol-related traffic accidents through use of a triangulation model which describes input, process and output. Qualitative techniques include interviews with key actors to investigate the historical context of the law, the implementation process and consequences to the criminal justice system. Content analyses of major campaigns and newspaper articles on DWI examine the quality and quantity of publicity. Quantitative methods employ a time series quasi-experimental design to assess the impact of the law on traffic accidents.;Results of the research indicate that publicity campaigns are more effective in reducing accidents than the law is. Further, the unintended consequences of the law are profoundly impacting the criminal justice system. Courts are backlogged to an alarming degree. Prisons built to house the anticipated flood of offenders are only half-filled because of the backlog in the courts. The enormous costs of the DWI mandatory sentencing provisions are beginning to be felt by the individual, the criminal justice system and society.;The roots of the new laws lay in deterrence theory and they supplant the rehabilitative approach which has been the guiding principle of the criminal justice system for several decades.