Who's Driving? College Students' Choices of Transportation Home After Drinking (From Deviance and Deviants: An Anthology, P 38-43, 2000, Richard Tewksbury and Patricia Gagne -- See NCJ-184209)

• NCJ Number: 184210
• Author(s): Laura K. McCormick; John Ureda
• Date Published: 2000
• Length: 7 pages
• Sale Source: Roxbury Publishing Co.
• Publication Format: Book (Softbound)
• Publication Type: Report (Study/Research)
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America

Annotation

This article uses survey data to examine how and when students put themselves at risk for drunk driving accidents and how they rationalize driving drunk or riding with a drunk driver.

Abstract

Many students drive themselves home after drinking at bars or parties and many more ride with friends who have been drinking. They claim they do this because they have no other options. This suggests that, instead of making informed decisions, people who engage in deviant acts often do so because they feel they have no alternative but to do something dangerous or deviant. Males were more likely than females to drive themselves home from a gathering while impaired. Prevention efforts should focus on males, not only as a population targeted to receive education, but as a focus for peer resistance strategies. Males tended to be the primary drivers, particularly in dating situations. Young women may be reluctant to assert themselves in drinking-driving situations. Education in peer resistance strategies for women, specifically related to gender issues in drinking and/or driving situations, is warranted. Table, references