Citation

Fischer KA. Blutalkohol 1998; 35(3): 204-219.

Affiliation

Bayer. Verwaltungsgericht Munchen, 80335 Munchen, Germany.

Copyright

(Copyright © 1998, International Committee on Alcohol, Drugs and Traffic Safety and Bund gegen Alkohol und Drogen im Straßenverkehr, Publisher Steintor Verlag)

DOI

unavailable

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

In order to measure the effect of general prevention of offences a distinction should be made between punishment certainty, punishment severity and punishment celerity. Several international studies dealing with road traffic delinquency have shown that by increasing the risk of detection a decrease of alcohol impaired driving as well as alcohol related accidents can be obtained. However, this usually only occurs on a temporary basis. More severe punishment, in turn, has proven to be rather ineffective. The decisive factor in this context is not so much the objective increase of control density as the subjective perception of the risk of punishment. Apart from reinforced police activity, simultaneous reports in the media are therefore important. Some of these results have been confirmed by a German study.