A comparison of Virginia statutes for a first offense of driving while intoxicated with those of 49 states and the District of Columbia.

Ames, W. Allen · 1971 · ROSA P / Virginia Transportation Research Council (VTRC)

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Summary

This 1971 report by W. Allen Ames compares Virginia’s statutes for a first offense of driving while intoxicated (DWI) against those of the other 49 states and the District of Columbia. The study was motivated by the premise that the effectiveness of legal sanctions depends on two factors: the perceived risk of detection, apprehension, and conviction, and the severity of the penalty. The research aims to identify areas where Virginia’s laws deviate from national norms, potentially affecting their deterrent effect. The analysis focuses on statutory provisions regarding fines, imprisonment, license revocation, presumptive blood-alcohol levels, and admissible chemical evidence, excluding enforcement practices or subsequent offenses. The methodology involved a systematic review of state codes to categorize and compare specific statutory limits. For penalties, the study examined minimum and maximum fines, jail sentence durations, and license revocation periods, distinguishing between mandatory, discretionary, and fixed-limit revocations. For detection factors, it analyzed the blood-alcohol concentration levels used to define intoxication and the types of chemical tests admissible as evidence. The data were aggregated to determine national averages and distributions, allowing for a direct comparison of Virginia’s statutory harshness and procedural strictness relative to the rest of the nation. The findings reveal a significant disparity between the severity of Virginia’s penalties and its ease of prosecution. Regarding penalties, Virginia is among the most severe in the nation. Its fine structure ($200–$1,000) is higher than the national average ($65–$540), with only two states having higher minimums and none having higher maximums. The mandatory minimum jail sentence of one month is longer than 42 jurisdictions, and the mandatory 12-month license revocation is longer than 13 jurisdictions and stricter than the discretionary systems in eight others. Conversely, Virginia is extremely lax regarding detection. It retains a 0.15% presumptive blood-alcohol level for intoxication, the highest in the country, while 36 states had lowered this to 0.10%. Furthermore, Virginia is the only state that admits only blood test results as evidence, lacking authorization for quantitative breath analysis, which makes prosecution more burdensome. The report concludes that Virginia’s DWI laws are characterized by harsh penalties but low likelihood of conviction due to restrictive evidentiary standards. The author recommends legislative revisions to address this imbalance. Specifically, the report suggests considering a reduction in penalty severity if current harshness discourages police arrests and court convictions. More urgently, it recommends lowering the presumptive intoxication level to 0.10% and authorizing quantitative breath analysis as admissible evidence to improve detection and apprehension rates. The study implies that aligning Virginia’s detection standards with national trends while potentially moderating penalties could enhance the overall deterrent effect of DWI laws.

Key finding

Virginia's first-offense DWI statutes impose some of the nation's most severe penalties but utilize the highest presumptive blood-alcohol level and restrict admissible chemical evidence to blood tests only.

Methodology

dataset

Sample size: 51

Provenance

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Topics

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• dui enforcement