Table of Contents
Reasons and Thesis
The current DUI Laws are lenient on its offenders and they need to be changed. The number of deaths due to an alcohol-impaired driver has been rising steadily over the past three years. This has prompted legislators to call for a change in the Driving under Influence (DUI) Laws. A 2016 report by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reveal that in a day 28 Americans die due to drivers under influence (Carruth, 2013). This is an estimation of one person dying every 21 minutes. Another reason for proposing a change in the current DUI laws is due to impact of changes in the same laws in other countries. For example, a neighboring country to the United States has witnessed a significant drop in the fatality rates since they changed their driving laws.
Audience
The state legislature are the legislative body of states in the U.S. This is the law making body in the state level just like the congress in the national level. They have the power to repeal state laws or make amendments to state laws (Dejong, 2014). The state legislature is divided into two separate houses. The respective committees from both the houses responsible for DUI Laws will review this research. The current view of the state legislature on the DUI laws in the States of the US is that it is only an offense if a driver has a BAC (Blood Alcohol Concentration) of 0.08%. The state legislature has a composition of bicameral legislature. This is the case across all the states in the U.S except the state of Nebraska.
Scope and Outline
This paper focuses on the effect of the DUI laws on the current rates of death and impact of the proposed laws on the states that have implemented the proposed laws. It also reflects on the the strictness of the state DUI laws and gathers the views of citizens on the proposed laws.
This paper is structured in seven sections. They include the Introduction and Thesis Statement, objectives and questions Review of related literature, research design and methodology, the research findings, research recommendations and conclusion.
Questions
Who has the power to change DUI Laws?
DUI is a state law. The State Legislature has the power to change state laws. However, the state courts also have the power to change state laws in the United States that do not match the constitution of the United States (Nelson, 2015).
Why have not the law been changed to this point?
The DUI laws have not been changed yet due to pressure from the hospitality industry. For example in Utah State, the Utah Restaurant Association and the American Beverage Institute strongly opposed changes in the law (Hanna, 2015).
How can the DUI laws be changed?
The DUI laws can be changed to accommodate limits across United States to be reduced from current 0.08% to 0.05%. This is because reports released by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration showed that even drivers who have a BAC that is lower than 0.05% show difficulty in driving or responding to crises (Fell, 2014).
What are the possible benefits of acting on this proposal?
Acting on these proposals will reduce the number of drivers under influence. This will in turn reduce the number of deaths that are cause by such drivers. Lives will be saved.
Research Plan
Descriptive design method will be used in this study. It involves collecting data, classifying it, analyzing the data, comparing the data and interpreting it. Descriptive design is useful in collecting data that includes opinions of participants, their attitudes and even behavior towards a particular phenomenon (Turnbull, 2017). This study will adopt interviews and an observation checklist as its research instruments. Data analysis will be done using SPSS that is computer-based statistical package for social sciences. Data will be presented using graphs, pie charts and bar graphs.
- Carruth, B., & Valle, S. K. (2013). Drunk Driving in America: Strategies and Approaches to Treatment. Routledge.
- DeJong, W., & Blanchette, J. (2014). Case closed: research evidence on the positive public health impact of the age 21 minimum legal drinking age in the United States. Journal of Studies on Alcohol and Drugs, Supplement, (s17), 108-115.
- Fell, J. C., & Voas, R. B. (2014). The effectiveness of a 0.05 blood alcohol concentration (BAC) limit for driving in the United States. Addiction, 109(6), 869-874.
- Hanna, K. (2015). Old Laws New Tricks: Drunk Driving and Autonomous Vehicles.
- Nelson, T. F., Xuan, Z., Blanchette, J. G., Heeren, T. C., & Naimi, T. S. (2015). Patterns of change in implementation of state alcohol control policies in the United States, 1999–2011. Addiction, 110(1), 59-68.
- Turnbull, D., & Hodge Jr, J. G. (2017). Driving Under the Influence of Marijuana Laws and the Public’s Health: Public Health and the Law. The Journal of Law, Medicine & Ethics, 45(2), 280-283.