Just Don't Do It
...ing will be required to spend at least some time in jail or prison. 3. All convicted drivers will be required to have yellow license plates on their cars so that other people will know who they are and what they have done. 4. Anyone convicted will automatically lose their driver’s license for one year. 5. Surprise roadblocks will be set up and police will stop all drivers and test them for drunk driving. 6. All convicted drivers who are alcoholics will be required to have psychological treatment. 7. An ignition interlock system will be installed in convicted driver’s vehicles. 8. The possible seizure and sale of a repeat offender’s vehicle, and 9. Lowering the blood alcohol level from .10% to .08%, since a person can still be drunk at .08%. The goal of legal deterrence is to make the offense a less appealing choice. Brandon Applegate refers to this as “dominant paradigm” (177). A major problem the legal side faces is that policies are often subverted by implementation problems. Another problem is that shortly after the announcement of an increase in apprehension and conviction, offenses decline; however, reductions are not sustained and the rates of offending behavior soon return to the original level. Present day penalties for first-time violators are $250 to $400 in fines, twelve to forty-eight hours of required participation in an alcohol program, zero to thirty days in jail, six months to one year loss of driving privileges, and insurance surcharges. Two-time violators receive harsher penalties such as $500 to $1,000 in fines, thirty days of community service, forty-eight hours to ninety days in jail (the court may require ninety of those days to be community service work), ten year loss of driving privileges, and insurance surcharges. There are other penalties also: sixty-day penalties for driving in a reckless manner and exceeding the maximum speed limit by thirty miles an hour on the highway and twenty miles an hour on any other street or road. The penalties inflicted upon impaired drivers have increased since the 1980’s and have also targeted minors. The supporters of legal countermeasures have begun the battle against minors drinking and driving. Automobile accidents involving minors are leading cause of death among young people ages fifteen to twenty-four years of age, and new penalties have been placed on minors who use alcohol. The new law is called “zero-tolerance” and restricts the blood alcohol level of minors to .01%. If a minor is convicted of having a blood alcohol level above .01%, he or she faces severe penalties. If the conviction is a first-time offense, the minor will face a thirty to ninety day license suspension, not more than forty-five days of community service, and/or a maximum fine of $250. Those with at least one prior alcohol conviction face a ninety-day to one-year license suspension, not more than sixty days of community service, and/or a maximum fine of $500. The laws have been changed and are directed to deter minors from drinking and driving; however, the use of these laws have been changed and are directed to the police officer’s discretion. Other conditions left to discretion are: 1. The court may decide to charge the minor’s parents with the court fees. 2. The minor can be charged as an adult, but will spend jail time in a juvenile correctional facility. And, 3. The law enforcement agency has the right to impound the minor’s vehicle. The zero tolerance law enforces a blood alcohol level of .01%, which equals one beer, one glass of wine, or one shot of hard liquor--that is all it will take to put a minor over the legal limit. Alcohol is legal for adults to drink, but it is a depressant drug that can be just as dangerous as drugs. It distorts the visual perception of drivers and interferes with their attention span. Drinking and driving is also seen as a health issue and policies have been devised to save lives and reduce injuries. The main emphasis for non-criminal countermeasures is to alter institutional patterns rather than to catch and punish. People who encourage countermeasures of the above types feel that criminal justice sanctions should be applies only to those who are culpable. Applegate describes these approaches as a “challenging paradigm” (177). Proposed interventions are: 1. Make it possible for victims to sue bar owners, whose customers get drunk and cause an accident on the way home. 2. Make it possible for the victims to sue persons who have a party at their house, and whose guests get drunk and cause an accident on the way home. 3. Provide more government funds to set up treatment programs for people with alcohol problems. 4. Require all new cars to have an interlock system, requiring the driver to breathe into a machine that can tell if he or she has been drinking. 5. Require all new cars have driver and passenger air bags in the front seats. 6. Supply government money for television advertisements showing the dangers of driving while intoxicated. 7. Provide government money to anti-...