Screening for Criminality as a Long-term Indicator of Impaired Driving

This study examines the ability of a 10-item screening tool for identifying young men at high risk for criminal behavior (e.g., violence, property crime) to predict drunk and/or drugged driving later in life. Screening tool items included getting into fights from age 8-11, having a parent absent >6 months while growing up, and drinking >once a month before age 15. The original sample of young men age 16-19 was obtained in 1992 with an approximately 3-to-1 ratio of positive to negative respondents on the screening tool. A follow-up survey of these men now in their early 30s was conducted with 80% of the original respondents still alive. Their data was analyzed regarding: driving while feeling the effects of alcohol, any drug other than alcohol, or alcohol and another drug simultaneously; perception of driving when having had too much to drink; driving within two hours of drinking; and driving within four hours or within one hour of using any drug other than alcohol. No statistically significant associations were found between screening positive and the drinking and driving variables. However, both driving while feeling the effects of any drug other than alcohol and driving within one hour of using a drug were significantly related to screening positively (χ2=4.9, p=0.026 for both). This result suggests that drugged drivers may be a subtype of impaired drivers that are more likely to have other criminal involvement than those who report only drinking and driving, because the screening was designed to correlate with risk for criminality.