THE EFFECTS OF A DRINKER-DRIVER TREATMENT PROGRAM - DOES CRIMINAL HISTORY MAKE A DIFFERENCE

The impact of a 12-week group therapy treatment program for driving-wh ile-intoxicated (DWI) offenders on DWI rearrest rates, self-reported d rinking, and self-reported drinking and driving was appraised. Individ uals with a criminal history, excluding DWI arrests, were more than tw ice as likely as those with no criminal history to be rearrested for a DWI within a 24-month period. The higher DWI recidivism rate for indi viduals with a prior criminal record was consistent across the dropout and treatment-completed subgroups. However, for individuals with no c riminal history, the treatment-completed subgroup showed a significant ly lower rate of recidivism than the dropouts. Follow-up self-report m easures of frequency of drinking behavior showed similar differences w ith respect to criminal history. The results suggest that consideratio n of DWI subgroups, specifically criminal history, may be important wh en assessing the impact of intervention and treatment strategies.