Young Adult - Arrests for Driving While Intoxicated
Young Adults - Driving While Intoxicated[view
data]
Data Provider:NYS Division of Criminal Justice Services
Life
Area: Civic Engagement
Definition:
The young adult arrest rate for driving while intoxicated (DWI) is defined as the number of arrests for driving while intoxicated per 10,000 young adults aged 16 through 21 in that county. The data shown are counts of fingerprinted arrests for drunk driving.
Significance:
The use of alcohol impairs vision, cognitive judgment, coordination and motor skills and can inhibit short term memory and the ability to concentrate. Even at a very low blood alcohol content such as .02-.03, alcohol impairs the ability to attend and respond to complex stimuli, such as road and traffic conditions, speed, traffic control devices, lane position, pedestrians, other vehicles, roadway signs, etc. (Brick, 1996). Youth have less driving experience than adults which, compounded with alcohol, puts youth at an increased risk of auto accidents, injury and death.
Note:
Community indicators are not direct measures of the population's behavior, but are instead measures of the performance of the community service systems that generate them. Indicator data produced by public service or social control agencies are affected by policy shifts, resource fluctuations, degree of centralization and standardization, local reporting practices and local service delivery differences. Local qualitative information regarding the "role" of the indicator in the context of its service setting must be obtained and applied when interpreting the results of indicator-based studies. The young adult arrest rate for driving while intoxicated is a direct measure of law enforcement response to underage drinking and drunk driving and is an indirect measure of young adult alcohol use in the population.
Findings:
Almost half of the counties (30) in New York have shown an increase in adolescent drunk-driving arrest numbers since 2000. Statewide, there were 999 or 17.2 percent more DWI arrests in 2008 than in 2000, with a commensurate rise in the overall statewide rate of arrest per 10,000 youth (41.8 in 2008 from 37.8 in 2000).
It is clear from the "Young Adult Arrests for Driving While Intoxicated" table that problems with underage drinking, and young drinking drivers, are found throughout the entire state (legal drinking age is 21). Almost 10 times as many 2008 DWI arrests occurred in the Rest Of State (6,154) as in New York City (666). The proportion of this gap in arrests is larger than would be expected simply from the difference in relative population numbers: the youth population of Rest Of State is only one-and-one-half the size of the New York City youth population.
Several factors contribute to the much more numerous Rest Of State arrests. City young people have more access to public transportation, and fewer of them acquire drivers licenses as a result. Rest Of State youth have more access to cars, and more of them have drivers licenses, which may be obtained beginning at age 16. Youth in more rural parts of the state with no public transportation often drive further distances to reach their destinations than do New York City young people. With underage drinking present everywhere, it can be said that, collectively, the Rest Of State youth are more exposed to DWI activity than New York City youth because of their many more drivers driving many more miles.
References:
Brick, John. (1996). Facts on: Driving While Intoxicated. Fact Sheet Number 5(2). Piscataway, NJ:Rutgers Center of Alcohol Studies.
KWIC
Indicator(s) and Narrative For: