From an objective viewpoint, drinking and driving significantly impairs driving skills and increases the risk of accidents; yet many continue to drink while driving.
Deterrence of drunk-driving is key in its reduction, but social norms play a similar role as costs (or moral costs) for rational actors.
Cultural Influences on Drinking and Driving
The cultural perspective holds that individual behaviors are embedded within larger social systems and therefore shaped by those structures, including family and peer networks, schools, workplaces and communities as well as laws, education and health care services. It draws its inspiration from sociological thought as well as work by psychologists such as Bronfenbrenner who proposed that human development occurs on an array of micro to macro scales (see figure).
At its core, drinking and driving involves making individual decisions which are shaped by cultural norms, values, traditions, beliefs as well as laws, policies and enforcement practices. One study of European countries demonstrated this by finding those with more wet alcohol cultures (Spain, Austria or France) were more likely to have drivers who breached legal drinking limits than dry countries such as Poland or Hungary. Another research team’s examination of racism discrimination and alcohol consumption among African American subjects produced mixed results due to socioeconomic status intertwined with discrimination to influence drinking and driving behaviors.
Cultural Influences on DUI Enforcement
Driving while impaired puts drivers and others at risk of serious bodily harm or death. Furthermore, intoxication diverts police, emergency medical, hospital resources away from other community issues; further depleting financial resources of families of those injured or killed as well as businesses which suffer due to traffic delays and damaged properties.
Cultural influences play a huge part in how society perceives DUI behaviors as either acceptable or unacceptable. A country’s legal and enforcement systems can impact this perception, with loophole-rich systems often leading to bureaucratized and politicized processes for DWI enforcement.
Additionally, individuals from specific ethnic or racial backgrounds are more likely to be arrested for drunk driving due to ethnic or racial profiling. According to one study of Latino clients enrolled in substance use disorder treatment programs who experienced DUI arrests after leaving treatment than White counterparts; thus highlighting how providers must strive to limit arrest rates among attendees of their services.
Cultural Influences on DUI Prevention
Even with stringent laws in place, driving under the influence of alcohol or drugs remains a global epidemic. Alcohol- and drug-related accidents claim lives, cause severe injuries to others, and damage property. When accidents do happen due to driving while impaired, police, fire, medical, courts must respond in an effort to prosecute drunk drivers while injured people suffer missed work wages as a result of injuries they sustain and insurance companies must cover higher premiums as a result.
Many drivers know the risks associated with drinking and driving can be grave, yet continue engaging in this behavior despite knowing its dangers. This may be the result of social pressure from peer groups who glorify irresponsible behaviour making it hard to oppose it even when its long-term repercussions become evident.
Studies demonstrate the potential effectiveness of legal deterrents such as high blood alcohol concentration (BAC) limits and stringent penalties to lower DUI rates; however, their success cannot always be predicted. Drivers’ understanding of consequences – along with perceptions about whether they’ll be caught and punished for DUI offenses – play an integral role in making decisions regarding driving under the influence.
Cultural Influences on DUI Detection
Studies on DUI detection use both surveys and behavioral research techniques. Most people agree that drinking and driving is dangerous and that those caught should be punished; specifically they believe financial penalties such as fines, imprisonment or license suspension can deter future offenses of this sort.
Personality traits such as impulsivity, sensation-seeking and low conscientiousness increase the odds of making risky real-world choices like driving under the influence. Furthermore, they contribute to racial disproportionality in DUI conviction rates where Black/African American and Latino/Hispanic people are overrepresented relative to population proportion in arrests and crashes related to alcohol consumption.
Researchers have recently demonstrated how cultural factors such as power distance, individualism and masculinity may act to lower the correlation between friends’ drunk-driving habits and an individual’s own drunk driving behavior. Their findings indicate that efforts to decrease disparities in DUI conviction rates must take these cultural influences into consideration.
