Overview of: “Moving beyond BAC in DUI: Identifying Who Is at Risk of Recidivating”

Abstract

Research Summary Driving under the influence (DUI) represents a significant threat to public safety in the United States, and a significant proportion of first-time DUI offenders go on to become repeat offenders. Substantial resources have been expended to identify variables that predict DUI recidivism, but less progress has been made in developing clinically useful tools to predict recidivism accurately. In the current study, we developed a brief empirically based tool containing markers of recidivism risk and treatment need and conducted a small study to examine the ability of items to discriminate between first-time and repeat DUI offenders. Analyses identified several criminal risk and treatment need variables that discriminated between the two groups; however, blood alcohol concentration (BAC) did not. Policy Implications Further validation of these findings and the refinement of the triage tool could provide a practical, evidence-based means of screening and triaging first-time DUI offenders and help to inform and refine policy and sentencing guidelines.