| Abstract: | This article documents the experience of a community–New Philadelphia, Ohio–in which a concerned judge attempted to apply severe penalties in order to deter drunk driving. Surveys of drivers on weekend nights were performed in this community and the nearby comparison city of Cambridge in order to determine the extent to which the legal threats were perceived and the extent to which people drank and drove. It was found that the judicial policies were well known in New Philadelphia, but no differences could be discerned in the extent of drinking and driving between the two cities. No significant differences were found in the subsequent records of samples of sentenced drivers in the two cities, the New Philadelphia sample being sentenced to heavy punishments and the Cambridge drivers being sentenced traditionally. The accomplishments and limitations of the experience reported in this study are relevant both to formulating effective countermeasures to drunk driving in specific American communities, and to understanding the role of law–its capabilities and limitations–in addressing social problems more generally. |
