DWI/DWAI offenders and recidivism by gender in the eighties: a changing trend?

The study is based on a systematic random sample from the New York State's Driver License File, which contains 15,032 drivers who were convicted of DWI/DWAI at least once in the period of 1978 to 1988. The analysis reveals (1) the proportion of male offenders 20 and younger continued to decrease through the 1980s, while the proportion of female offenders 21 and older increased; and (2) the female DWI/DWAI recidivism rate began to parallel the male recidivism rate after the mid-1980s. A number of factors may be attributed to the changing DWI/DWAI structure, such as the impact of the 21 alcohol purchase age law, the change of women's roles and lifestyles, and the changing attitudes of the public and the police toward female drinking-driving.