U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government, Department of Justice.

NCJRS Virtual Library

The Virtual Library houses over 235,000 criminal justice resources, including all known OJP works.
Click here to search the NCJRS Virtual Library

Effectiveness of Education and Treatment Programs for Drinking Drivers: A Decade of Evaluation (From Alcohol, Drugs and Traffic Safety, P 1298-1328, 1981, Leonard Goldberg, ed. -- See NCJ-110793)

NCJ Number
110798
Author(s)
J L Nichols; V S Ellingstad; R E Reis
Date Published
1981
Length
31 pages
Annotation
This paper assesses the various types of information collected and analyzed between 1970 and 1980 to assess the effectiveness of the Alcohol Safety Action Project (ASAP) drinking-driver education and treatment programs.
Abstract
Studies included simple post-hoc comparisons across ASAP sites, 2 experimentally controlled studies, ASAP project-level evaluations, a quasi-experimental survival rate analysis, an 11-city experimental study, and a single-city large-scale experimental study. Early studies during the project suggested that some ASAP treatment modalities may have had a positive effect on recidivism. Large-scale quasi-experimental studies appeared to support positive treatment effects for social but not problem drinkers. The 11-city study found little or no effectiveness for either education or treatment programs. Preliminary results from a large-scale experimental study of first offenders found no significant differences in recidivism between social and problem drinkers as a result of education programs. Overall, results suggest that such programs have little effect in modifying the subsequent behavior of those exposed to them. 7 references, 4 tables, and 12 figures.