Reducing Underage Drinking A Collective Responsibility (2004) / Chapter Skim
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8 Effectiveness of Sanctions and Law Enforcement Practices Targeted at Underage Drinking Not Involving Operation of a Motor Vehicle--Thomas L. Hafemeister and Shelly L. Jackson
8 Effectiveness of Sanctions and Law Enforcement Practices Targeted at Underage Drinking Not Involving Operation of a Motor Vehicle--Thomas L. Hafemeister and Shelly L. Jackson
Pages 490-540
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. This chapter focuses on the effective ness of sanctions and law enforcement practices intended to deter youth from purchasing, possessing, or consuming alcohol, or from using misrepresentation to purchase alcohol.2 The first section of this chapter is divided into three parts: (1)
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Although not all states prohibit each of these activities, namely, purchase, possession, consumption, and misrepresentation, many do, and the President's Commission on Model State Drug Laws (1993) recommends that states adopt laws that prohibit all of them.3 3Discussion of motor vehicle-related offenses is beyond the purview of this chapter.
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of a motor vehicle. Similarly, anticonsumption laws make it an offense to consume alcoholic beverages in the passenger compartment of a motor vehicle (National Highway Traffic Safety Administration/National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism [NHTSA/NIAAA]
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) any alcoholic beverage in any on-sale premises .
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. shall not apply with respect to the apply with respect to the possession of alcoholic possession of alcoholic beverages for consumption .
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. to knowingly transport [alcoholic beverage]
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. , knowingly possesses, transports or carries on his person, any alcohol or alcoholic beverages, .
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. a person may not sell or otherwise provide an alcoholic beverage to a person under 21 years of age.
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. of a minor serves alcoholic beverages to that minor on real property, other than licensed premises, under the control of the parent .
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. where possession of the alcoholic beverages .
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. However, like state laws, local ordinances vary considerably in how they address underage drinking (OIG, 1991; PIRE, 2000)
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. LAW ENFORCEMENT PRACTICES Enforcement Techniques The burden of enforcing underage drinking laws typically falls on county and local law enforcement officials (Wolfson et al., 1995)
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Some states authorize retailers to confiscate false identifications immediately, then to contact law enforcement officials (e.g., CAL.
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6These arrest statistics do not, however, reflect the response rate of law enforcement officials. They may intervene in underage drinking and disperse the youth involved, but choose not to make an arrest or issue a citation (Hunter Hurst, Jr., National Center for Juvenile Justice, personal communication, August 16, 2002)
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Part of this low enforcement may be attributed to the fact that this behavior is often not readily observable by law enforcement officials in the course of their routine duties nor likely to generate a complaint that will bring it to their attention. However, there has also been considerable speculation that law enforcement officials are not enforcing these laws as vigorously as they might.
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. Law enforcement officials also complain that these cases are too time consuming.
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Dispositions include fines, incarceration, required participation in diversion programs, community service, referral for alcohol assessment and treatment, and mandatory education. Information is lacking on the relative use of these various dispositions and the recidivism rates for convicted underage drinkers.
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. The most widely used diversion program is teen court, although juvenile drug courts are gaining notoriety.12 12Although not yet widely employed, a few relevant diversion programs other than teen courts and juvenile drug courts do exist.
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. Peer juries issue sanctions that include future participation as a teen court juror, financial restitution, obtaining counseling, in-house detention, community service, and writing a letter of apology or an extensive essay (Johnson and Rosman, 1997)
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. The sanctions available to JDCs include imposition of or increase in curfew conditions, community service, frequent court contacts, treatment contracts and/or urinalysis, and short-term incarceration.13 Incentives for positive behavior change include promotion to a subsequent program phase, awards or gift vouchers to a local sporting event, certificates or tokens acknowledging the participant's accomplishments, the judge's praise, and the praise of other drug court participants.
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Furthermore, only 5.6 percent of the offenders appearing before the court were there for alcohol-related charges.16 Applied Sanctions and Their Effectiveness As indicated, the courts and associated diversion programs have a number of sanctions available to them for responding to youth brought before them who have engaged in underage drinking. As noted, sanctions vary in their severity, whether they are considered criminal or civil in nature and thus what consequences they have for the youth, whether they are to be enhanced for subsequent offenses, and whether their application varies with the age of the youth.
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. Unfortunately, empirical evidence regarding the effectiveness of fines in deterring underage drinking is lacking.17 Community Service Community service is another common sanction imposed on youth for underage drinking violations (PIRE, 1999)
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, law enforcement personnel strongly believe that the possibility of license revocation is an effective deterrent because a driver's license is important to most youth. There is some concern, however, that because the threat of detection of driving without a license is so low, youth will simply drive without a license (Canadian Cancer Society, 2001)
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.18 However, it may be that education that occurs in conjunction with other sanctions enhances the effect of the education program.19 School Involvement Some state laws require that law enforcement and schools collaborate in responding to underage drinking cases (NHTSA/NIAAA, 1999)
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However, if incarceration is part of the sanctioning response, it has been recommended that incarceration be short term rather than long term because of assertions that short-term incarceration will be more effective (Office of Justice Programs Drug Court Clearinghouse and Technical Assistance Project, 1999)
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For example, judges may include as a condition of probation the payment of a fine, obtaining an alcohol dependency assessment or periodic testing for alcohol use, attendance at an education program, or community service. A number of conditions can be set simultaneously by the court.
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For example, law enforcement officials may be required to notify a parent when a minor has been cited (i.e., no arrest occurs) for an alcohol-related violation (e.g., MICH.
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Little evidence is available to indicate that the enforcement of tobacco possession laws has decreased underage smoking behavior (Canadian Cancer Society, 2001; Kelder, 1997; Mosher, 1998)
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add that the assumption of legislators may have been that the mere existence of underage drinking laws would deter underage drinking and that enforcement and sanctions would not be necessary. However, there is little indication that this has occurred.
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when the behavior in question is obvious and public rather than private (e.g., speed law enforcement versus unlicensed driving)
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Finally, states are the conduit for delivering federal funds to local schools. School Policies Nature of School Policies In accord with federal and state laws, all elementary and secondary schools have alcohol policies (Gottfredson et al., 2000)
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of public schools report having zero-tolerance policies for alcohol violations (Heaviside et al., 1998) .28 Sanctions When alcohol policies are violated, a common response is suspension or expulsion, a response that may be dictated by state law (see, e.g., HAW.
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Expulsion was rarely used at the first or second violation, but 28 percent of the schools employed expulsion for third violations of tobacco policy. Law Enforcement Involvement Other responses to violations of school alcohol policy include involving law enforcement in some way.
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Some schools that previously expelled youth arrested for substance offenses have begun working with other systems (e.g., JDCs) to keep these youth in school (McPhail and Wiest, 1995; Office of Justice Programs Drug Court Clearinghouse and Technical Assistance Project, 1999)
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. Research on drug courts: A critical review, 2001 update.
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U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Justice Pro grams, Drug Courts Program Office.
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FBI Law Enforcement Bulletin, 67(6)
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Office of Justice Programs Drug Court Clearinghouse and Technical Assistance Project.
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Richmond, VA: Bureau of Law Enforcement Opera tions. Wagenaar, A.C., and Wolfson, M
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Some states permit the suspension, revocation, or denial of a youth's driver's license for the full range of underage drinking offenses in that state (e.g., Michigan) , while in other states it is limited to only certain specific offenses, such as using false identification in an attempt to obtain alcohol (e.g., Minnesota)
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. Constitutional Validity of Statutes That Suspend Driver's Licenses Because the loss or denial of driving privileges can be of considerable importance to a youth, a number of lawsuits have challenged legislative efforts to suspend, revoke, or deny driver's licenses for underage drinking when the youth's activity did not involve the use or operation of a motor vehicle.
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prohibitions of cruel and unusual punishment. The substantive due process claims typically consist of an argument that there is no obvious connection between underage drinking that was not associated with the operation of a motor vehicle and dangerous driving.
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. 38The Supreme Court of Wyoming responded by stating, "the driving force behind enactments such as presented here is to enforce non-use of alcoholic beverages by persons under the age of 19.
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The Supreme Court of Wyoming struck down a similar statutory provision because it did not find a rational basis for a distinction by age group among underage drinkers.41 In criticizing the imposition of suspensions only on youth below age 18, it has been argued that studies show that youth of ages 18 through 20 are more likely to use alcohol, to drive more often, and to harm the public through drunk driving. One judge concluded, "it is difficult to conceive what rational basis the Legislature would have for excluding those aged 18 and older."42 However, the Supreme Court of Washington upheld this age distinction and found several ways in which the law treats youth under the age of 18 differently from youth of ages 18 through 20.43 The court noted that youth under the age of 18 are subject to the jurisdiction of the juvenile court where the aim of sentencing is both punishment and rehabilitation; that certain restrictions are placed on their ability to obtain a driver's license, including obtaining the approval of their parents or guardians and successfully completing an approved safety education course; and that they cannot own a car, vote, hold office, independently decide to marry, make a will, or 40However, equal protection arguments have failed that have challenged the decision of some states to limit these suspensions to youth above a minimum age, such as 13.
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Typically this argument asserts that the youth's consumption or possession of alcohol was a relatively innocuous or isolated event, such as the drinking of a single can of beer on private property that caused no one any harm. The argument continues that the suspension of a youth's driver's license for a year, for example, causes an extreme hardship for the youth in today's society, where the operation of a motor vehicle is vital to the youth's opportunities to work or pursue other opportunities and the youth's wellbeing.44 This set of assertions, however, also has been generally rejected by the courts.
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On the other hand, the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania concluded that the loss of driving privileges for underage drinking was a civil collateral consequence of a youth's conviction and thus the youth was not required to be informed of this consequence at the time of his or her submission of a guilty plea.49 The court noted that although a criminal defendant ordinarily must be informed of the consequences of submitting a guilty plea, Pennsylvania courts had routinely recognized that suspension of a driver's license is a collateral civil consequence of a criminal conviction and that it was not required that the defendant know that it would be imposed at the time of his or her guilty plea. The court rejected the youth's argument that driver's license suspension should be considered a criminal penalty because the statute imposing it was found in the criminal code, asserting that its placement in the legislative code was not determinative.
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: First offense, shall suspend license for 90 days; second offense, shall suspend for 180 days; third or subsequent offense, shall suspend for one year (D.C.
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: First offense, shall suspend license for six months; second and subsequent offenses, shall suspend for one year (GA.
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) ; third or subsequent offense, suspend license for two years or until reaches age of 21, whichever is greater, and shall perform 60 hours of community service related to reducing the incidence of driving while under the influence of intoxicating liquor (N.M.
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: Shall suspend license (TENN.
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: First offense, may suspend license; second or subsequent offense within 12 months, may suspend license, unless involved motor vehicle then shall suspend license (WIS.
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