Rand Publishes, “Using Certainty and Celerity to Deter Crime”

November 30, 2018

Rand published, through there website, a study on Using Certainty and Celerity to Deter Crime.

The study by Kilmer and Midgette found that of 16,513 individuals who were arrested for a second or third drunk driving event in South Dakota between 2004 and 2011 were estimated to and a 49% lower rearrest rate than the control group in the first twelve months after arrest, a 35% lower rate of rearrest rate 24 months after arrest and a 26% lower rearrest rate 36 months after arrest.

It is important to note that during this timeframe, 85% of the participants in South Dakota participated in the 24/7 program through in person twice a day testing and 15% through transdermal alcohol testing.

An interesting conclusion that Kilmer and Midgette arrived at was that, “It is important to stress that 24/7 does not require participants to enter treatment or engage in other services; this seems to be largely a detterrent effect, although one mechanism through which that deterrence might work is given participants a reason to seek treatment on their own, whther paid profession treatment of self-help (e.g. Alcoholis Anaonymous).”

Kilmer and Midgette went on to suggest that the performance with regards to rearrest rates for third offense participants on a 24/7 program were comparable to much more expensive DUI-treatment courts.