© 2005 Behavioral Health Research Institute of the Southwest
612 Encino Place NE / Albuquerque, NM 87102 / 505.244.3099 / www.bhrcs.org

Follow-up of Female DWI Offenders Five Years after Screening
Funded by the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism

We are studying female DWI (driving while impaired) offenders in order to better understand this population vis-a-vis the general DWI population, which is predominantly male. If we better understand female DWI offenders, then justice-system and treatment personnel can make better decisions about sentencing, educating, and treating them. 

Perhaps because women constitute only 18% of all persons arrested for DWI nationally, investigators have largely ignored them. And even while evidence indicates that the number of female DWI offenders is increasing, the scientific literature and the justice system usually makes no distinction.

We found that risk factors for re-arrest were for the most part similar for males and females, although males were much more likely to be re-arrested than were females. Furthermore, young age was a significant risk factor for re-arrest for males but not for females. The five-year re-arrest rate is 20% for women, 38% for males age 30 and under, and 24% for males age 31 and older. We conclude that neither the type of risk factors nor the number of risk factors fully explain female offenders’ disproportionately lower recidivism rates, compared with young males.

This published research contributes to a better understanding of DWI offenders — male as well as female — so that better treatment and more effective sanctions might be developed.

Drunk Driving and Habitual Substance Abuse

The most dramatic finding of this study was one we did not set out to examine. We discovered that an extremely high proportion (85% to 90%) of men and women arrested for drunk driving appear to already suffer from serious substance abuse.

Evidence gathered in this study also suggests that those arrested for drunk driving seriously underreport their use of alcohol and drugs as well as other problems during their court-mandated screenings.

We believe this is the best scientific evidence so far that almost all drunk drivers require treatment for substance abuse. These are important findings for medical caregivers, therapists, the justice system, and lawmakers to consider in their handling of DWI convictions.