COUNTRY: UNITED STATES
REGION: AMERICAS
Implementer: Pacific Institute for Research and Evaluation
Partners: National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism; Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles; Division of Driver Licenses; Bureau of Driver Education and DUI Programs; Florida Association of DUI Programs & Independent Programs
Program Overview: The Preventing Alcohol-Related Convictions (PARC) program differs from traditional driving under the influence (DUI) education and prevention programs in that it does not suggest to DUI offenders that they must abstain from alcohol entirely or control their drinking to prevent a future DUI; rather, it teaches students to prevent a future DUI by not driving their cars to drinking events.
Program Design: The PARC program is a 2-hour brief intervention that can be substituted for the fourth and final session of the traditional DUI education program for first DUI offenders.
The first three PARC sessions are identical to those of the Traditional program. Session 1 provides basic background information on impaired-driving laws and the impact of alcohol on driving safety, Session 2 provides on the effects of alcohol and alcohol abuse, and Session 3 uses an interactive format and asks offenders to express their long-term goals in life, to consider the impact of their drinking on those goals, and to determine their responsibility to others in an effort to set the stage for behavior change. In the fourth PARC session, participants review the ineffective steps that they previously attempted to prevent impairment and the influences that countered their attempts to limit drinking or driving after drinking. The students develop a plan in order to not drive to the drinking event.
-The traditional curriculum for the fourth session also involves examining past behavior and making a plan, but it is focused on controlling drinking rather than driving.
Evaluation: First-time DUI offenders throughout the state of Florida from August 2004 to December 2004 who were mandated as a result of their adjudication to a DUI class (n = 9,571) attended either a PARC class or a traditional DUI class. The mandated classes totaled 12 hours, which typically spanned 2 to 4 days.
Driving records were obtained using driver’s license numbers to assess DUI recidivism rates among the students in the PARC and traditional curricula for the first year following program participation and again at 2 years post-intervention.
Key findings: Offenders receiving the PARC curriculum exhibited significantly lower 1-year and 2-year recidivism rates than those receiving the traditional curriculum (Rider et al., 2007).
-The PARC program is effective in moving participants toward more readiness for change and toward a strategy of planning ahead to avoid driving to any venue in which drinking may occur (Rider et al., 2006).
Program Website:
References:
Rider, R., Voas, R.B., Kelley-Baker, T., Grosz, M., & Murphy, B. (2007). Preventing alcohol-related convictions: the effect of a novel curriculum for first-time offenders on DUI recidivism. Traffic Injury Prevention, 8(2), 147-152.
Rider, R., Kelley-Baker, T., Voas, R.B., Murphy, B., McKnight, A.J., & Levings, C. (2006). The impact of a novel educational curriculum for first-time DUI offenders on intermediate outcomes relevant to DUI recidivism. Accident Analysis and Prevention, 38(3), 482-489.
McKnight, A.J., Lange, J.E., & McKnight, A.S. (1995). Why people drink and drive: the basis of drinking-and-driving decisions. In Alcohol, Drugs, and Traffic Safety, Kloeden C.N., McLean E., Eds, Vol. 1, Adelaide, Australia, NHMRC, University of Adelaide, pp. 143-147.
Target Audience: Drink driving offenders
Issues: Drinking and Driving
Setting: Remedial Drink Driving Programs
Approach: Life Skills
