The offenders had all been convicted for driving under the influence of alcohol during 1989 in Erie and Nassau Counties in New York. The DSM-III-R criteria for alcohol dependence were measured by a self-report format. Results revealed that men had a significantly higher rate of alcohol dependence than women: 79 percent versus 52 percent. Significant gender differences were found for five of the nine criteria. Analysis of variance showed no significance difference in the number of criteria for men and women when interpersonal competence, level of education, and preferred drinking context (public versus private locations) were controlled for in the analysis. Findings indicated that higher competence and education of the females may act as a protective factor that accounts for the difference in the number of criteria between the genders. In addition, the role of drinking context and how its relationship to alcohol dependence differs for men and women deserves greater attention. Finally, the results suggest that the current system detects women drunk drivers who are less severely dependent on alcohol; further research should focus on whether this results in better outcomes than for male drunk driving offenders.