In an article published yesterday in the Telegraph, Stanford addiction expert Keith Humphreys, PhD, discusses how public officials in London are turning to the United States' "24/7 sobriety" model in an effort to reduce repeat offenders convicted of alcohol-related crimes. The program, which combines mandatory sobriety and daily breathalyser tests, was created under Humphreys’ guidance. He writes:
Research by the RAND Corporation - a US-based non-profit global policy think tank - found that 24/7 sobriety dropped repeat drink driving arrests by 12 per cent. The same study also yielded a pleasant surprise: domestic violence arrests dropped by 9 per cent, despite not being a focus of the programme. Removing alcohol from the lives of criminals can apparently have radiating benefits beyond those directly related to their most recent offence.
In light of its positive results, judges across the U.S. have been adopting the 24/7 sobriety approach. This week, under the leadership of Mayor Johnson and his team, a pilot of the programme will be launched in South London. Leaping the pond will come with some challenges, particularly around delivering sanctions swiftly within the constraints of British law, but local tailoring of innovations is always an essential part of making them spread.
In any event, with over one million alcohol-related assaults occurring nationally each year and many London boroughs being regularly marred by violence and disorder on weekend evenings, the time for new approaches to binge drinking criminal offenders has clearly arrived. The judges and probation officers who are undertaking this pilot should be applauded for refusing to accept the status quo.
Previously: Text messages after ER visit could reduce young adults’ binge drinking by more than 50 percent, Study shows legal drinking age of 21 saves lives and reduces health risks for young adults, Alcoholism: Not just a man’s problem and Stopping criminal men from drinking reduces domestic violence
Photo by Paul Downey
