Reducing recidivism in driving while disqualified - A treatment evaluation

Driving while disqualified, that is, during a period of license revocation, represents a serious and recurrent social problem: About 54% of convicted individuals are reconvicted in the ensuing 6 years. This article briefly ou tlines a relapse-prevention cognitive-behavioral treatment program for offe nders convicted of driving while disqualified. Results indicate that the 14 4 treated offenders were reconvicted of further violations of license revoc ation at a significantly lower rate than offenders in a matched comparison group. Although no difference was found for subsequent drunk-driving convic tions, it appears that the program may have reduced other subsequent crimin al offending. In addition, there were significant pre- to posttreatment cha nges on a number of relevant social competency variables. These results pro vide support for the efficacy of a relapse-prevention approach to this grou p of offenders and for identification of disqualified drivers as a distinct subgroup of driving offenders.