Community Involvement & DUI

The grass roots, anti-DUI movement can play a critical role in making public education campaigns more effective. There is research to demonstrate that behavior change is much more likely when there is personal contact in addition to media exposure. The success of groups such as Alcoholics Anonymous and Weight Watchers suggests that behavior change frequently is more successful in a group setting. Thus, the Stanford Heart Disease Project demonstrated that people who were exposed in groups to discussions and demonstrations on measures for preventing heart disease were much more likely to change their behavior than were persons exposed solely to media messages. However, researchers also found that the group exposed solely to public health messages improved its attitudes and behavior more than did the control group that was not exposed to any special health campaign.

Fort Lauderdale criminal lawyers maintain that groups such as MADD, RID, and SADD have been very imaginative in bringing programs to schools and other community organizations. At the local level they have increasingly defined their role in terms of public education. Often in coordination with state-sponsored anti-drunk driving task forces and projects they have developed and disseminated educational packets for children as young as elementary school students. They have worked with both junior high school and senior high school students to develop practical strategies to help the latter groups both in resisting peer pressures to drink and in restraining friends from drinking/driving.

Should you have questions about the effectiveness of any particular community program or group targeting individuals suspected of driving under the influence in Florida Contact the Fort Lauderdale DUI attorneys at William Moore Criminal Defense.