According to the United States Public Health Service, over 100,000 deaths a year are attributable to alcohol, including 20,000 highway fatalities. In response, legislatures have enacted various forms of regulation intended both to reduce alcohol consumption and to curb its harmful effects. This groundbreaking study focuses on one such form of regulation, the liability imposed on alcohol servers and social hosts by tort law. Basing their analysis on important new data from their extensive research and in-depth interviews with actors on all sides of the issue, the authors conclude that, despite their relative unpopularity, tort laws are very effective in reducing accidents—even more than criminal sanctions.

Extraordinary in scope and exacting in detail, Drinkers, Drivers, and Bartenders: Balancing Private Choices and Public Accountability links alcohol problems, deterrence, and serving practices in a way no other work has been able to do and is certain to become a crucial reference point for researchers and policymakers alike.

In this ambitious interdisciplinary study, James B. Jacobs provides the first comprehensive review and analysis of America's drunk driving problem and of America's anti-drunk driving policies and jurisprudence. In a clear and accessible style, he considers what has been learned, what is being done, and what constitutional limits exist to the control and enforcement of drunk driving.

Drunken driving is the most serious crime likely to be committed by an adult. Each year in the United States it is responsible for approximately 20,000 fatalities, more than 500,000 arrests, and millions of violations. It involves a wider variety of social classes and economic strata than any other major violation of the law. Only recently, however, has the problem of alcohol and traffic safety received attention as a public policy issue.

Social Control of the Drinking Driver lays the groundwork for a much needed integration of methods, principles, and priorities. Law, criminology, biology, psychology, sociology, economics, public policy—the disciplines concerned with the problem of drinking and driving are many and varied, and research crosses national boundaries as well. It is not surprising, therefore, that an integrated general perspective has not yet emerged. Drawing on fourteen specialists and surveying the situations in nine countries, this book presents a comprehensive statement of current knowledge about drunken driving and its control.