ABSTRACT
This chapter reviews the relevant literature on drunk driver subgroups, presents our theoretical frame of reference, and details the methodology. The foregoing subgroup studies are somewhat consistent in terms of classification structure and the resulting subgroups but do not utilize complete arrest-history analysis for their typologies. When incarcerated, driving under the influences are frequently confined in special jail areas and enrolled in alcohol treatment and traffic safety educational programs, where they are generally considered to be offenders without criminal intent. The literature discloses the heterogeneity of the drunk-driving population, the need for the further development of subtypes among this offender group for heuristic as well as treatment and control purposes, and the suitability of arrest-history and ethnographic analyses as an added dimension. The generality of deviance thesis herein is based on a social control theory incorporating the classical school of criminology’s view of the role of choice and a positivistic view of the role of causation in explaining criminal behavior.
