The characteristics of young Indigenous drink drivers in Queensland, Australia

Abstract

There were limited differences between females and males or recidivists and nonrecidivists at first conviction. Convictions for drink driving may provide an opportunity for early alcohol intervention with Indigenous young drivers (<20 years) because it is likely to be an individual's first alcohol-related conviction.

Drinking and driving relapse: Data from BAC and MMPI-2

“…For example, Impinen et al (2009) [10] found that recidivists are, on average, younger and have higher blood alcohol concentration (BAC) than non-recidivists at the time of their first offense. Fitts, Palk, Lennon, and Clough (2017) [11] reported that subjects with a very high number of BAC convictions are more likely to re-offend, confirming the results of Chou et al (2005) [12] and Morrison, Begg, and Langley (2002) [13]. Others have attempted to predict recidivism using a combination of demographic variables and personality characteristics, employing statistical procedures such as multiple regression, discriminant function analysis, and logistic regression (for a review, see Nochajski & Stasiewicz, 2006 [14]).…”

Drink driving among Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians: What has been done and where to next?

“…Indigenous people are more likely to drink and drive if they are in non‐urban areas [21], are aged less than 25 years [21] and have multiple drink driving convictions [22,23]. Specifically, Indigenous drink drivers from remote areas [24] are more likely to re‐offend and to record a higher range blood alcohol concentration (≥0.15 g/100 ml in Australia) [25].…”

“…For example, some studies and government reports present overall Indigenous drink driving rates only by jurisdiction [3] or by recidivism rates and associated demographic and offence characteristics [22,23,25]. One study compared Indigenous and non‐Indigenous drink drivers [31], while another study compared Indigenous first‐time convicted and Indigenous repeat drink drivers [25]. This makes it difficult to determine regions of high risk and impact of policy and programs on drink driving.…”

“…Despite these observations, existing information on Indigenous Australians who drive above the legal alcohol limit is fragmented, with qualitative data only available from a small number of towns and communities within three of eight Australian jurisdictions (New South Wales, Queensland and Western Australia) [3,22,23,[25][26][27][28][29][30][31][32]. Drink driving is the responsibility of and enforced by individual state and territory governments.…”