Citation

Thurman Q, Jackson S, Zhao J. Soc. Sci. Res. 1993; 22(3): 245-264.

Copyright

(Copyright © 1993, Elsevier Publishing)

DOI

10.1006/ssre.1993.1012

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

Drunk driving continues to be a heavily studied research topic. However, despite much emphasis on the study of individual behavior using conventional survey techniques, new insight into the problem of drunk driving has been slow to develop. The study described below uses factorial surveys to examine the drunk-driving judgments of a national probability sample of 528 nonabstaining adults. These data suggest that key components in decisions to drink and drive include the extent of the driver′s behavioral impairment, the availability of drunk-driving alternatives, weather conditions, the number of miles that have to be driven after drinking, the legal consequences of drunk driving (in terms of jail sentences and license revocations), the community response to drunk driving, where drinking occurs, fines that might be issued, the use of traffic roadblocks, and the driver′s familiarity with roads that must be driven after a drinking event. The analysis undertaken also shows that the influence of these same factors varies across levels of drunk driving experience, suggesting that those persons most experienced with drunk driving tend to rate legal sanctions as more important in judgments to drink and drive than those persons who typically refrain from drunk driving.