Program Profile: Accelerated Rehabilitative Disposition Program (Pa.) for First-Time DUI Offenses

The purpose of this program is to afford individuals who have committed a driving-under-the-influence (DUI) offense the opportunity to avoid the stigma of a criminal conviction and criminal labeling by expunging criminal records pertaining to the DUI offense through a diversion program. The program is rated Promising. Those in the diversion program were statistically significantly less likely to be rearrested within 4 years of the final disposition.

A Promising rating implies that implementing the program may result in the intended outcome(s).

Program Goals/Target Population

The Accelerated Rehabilitative Disposition (ARD) Program (Pa.) is a pretrial driving-under-the-influence (DUI) diversionary program designed to circumvent the impact of negative labels resulting from criminal convictions by giving a diversionary sentence to those who have committed their first-time DUI offense. Its goal is to reduce recidivism of program participants.

To be eligible for program participation, individuals who have committed a first-time DUI offense could not have had a child younger than 14 in the vehicle at the time of arrest and could not have been involved in a crash that caused serious injury or death.

Program Theory

The theoretical basis of the ARD Program is rooted in labeling theory and reintegrative theory. Both theories suggest that guilty convictions and their resulting criminal labels carry a stigma that can lead to social disapproval and exclusion of individuals who commit crimes, which in turn may increase their likelihood of recidivism (Laub and Sampson, 2003; Braithwaite, 1989). The program was designed to avoid giving these labels to individuals by not imposing a criminal record on those who commit a first-time DUI offense, which may result in lower recidivism rates compared with those given a guilty conviction and thus the label of “criminal” (Knoth and Ruback, 2021).

Program Components

To participate in the ARD Program, individuals who have committed their first DUI offense must comply with requirements and conditions of the diversion program. Eligible program participants are under the court’s supervision until completion of the diversionary sentence. Participants can be sentenced to 6 to 12 months of probation and up to 90 days of license suspension. The court may recommend participation in an alcohol highway safety course and mandatory drug or alcohol treatment in a community facility. Participants are responsible for all costs, including all court fines and fees, and may also have to pay restitution and participate in community service if ordered by the court.

Upon successful completion of the program, participants can seek to have the DUI charge dismissed and the arrest record, as it pertains to the DUI offense, expunged. However, failure to meet the requirements laid out by the court will result in reinstatement of charges and prosecution.

Study 1

Knoth and Ruback (2021) conducted a quasi-experimental design to assess the impact of criminal labeling on individuals who commit their first-time driving-under-the-influence (DUI) offense in the state of Pennsylvania. In Pennsylvania, individuals who commit their first-time DUI offense may be sentenced to a guilty conviction disposition or they may be sentenced to participate in the Accelerated Rehabilitative Disposition (ARD) Program. Both sentencing outcomes involve similar treatment conditions and requirements (i.e., up to 1 year of probation, 90 days of license suspension, and mandatory drug or alcohol treatment in a community facility). The major difference between the guilty disposition and the ARD program is that the ARD program allows participants the opportunity to avoid a criminal record on completing the program successfully. The study authors examined whether the ability to expunge a criminal record following completion of the ARD program influenced future criminal behavior.

Future criminal conviction or recidivism is a dichotomous variable operationalized as rearrest within 4 years of the final disposition. The main independent variable of interest is a dichotomous variable indicating whether those who committed a first-time DUI offense were diverted to an ARD program (59.9 percent of the sample) or sentenced to a guilty conviction (40.1 percent of the sample). Other predictors in this study included factors about the person who offended, the offense, the individual’s criminal history, and the county where the individual was sentenced. Those who committed a first-time DUI offense and were sentenced to a guilty conviction (35 percent) were more likely than those receiving ARD (28 percent) to recidivate.

Several data sources were used to conduct the analyses for the study. Data from the Administrative Office of Pennsylvania Courts (AOPC) were used to select the initial list of statewide DUI cases. Only those who were sentenced to their first DUI offense, did not have a child younger than 14 in the vehicle at the time of arrest, and were not involved in a crash that caused serious injury or death were eligible for the ARD program. To clearly assess racial differences, the sample included only those who identified as either white or Black. Additionally, the sample was limited to those who were sentenced during 2006 or 2007 in a Common Pleas Court, were sentenced to either a conviction or ARD (not both), and who had data available for all 4 years of the follow-up period. Data from the Pennsylvania State Police were used to obtain records of arrest and prosecution (RAP sheets), which provided necessary information on arrests before and after the primary DUI offense for those included in the sample.

The final sample size was 34,135 and included slightly more cases from 2007 (n = 20,357) than 2006 (n = 13,778). Those in the sample were mostly male (76.4 percent), white (92.2 percent, with the remainder of the sample Black), and between the ages of 21 and 45 (the average age was 33.3 years). Those who committed a first-time DUI offense and were sentenced to ARD (the treatment group) were statistically significantly different from those who were sentenced to a guilty conviction disposition (the comparison group). Females (69 percent), whites (61.0 percent), and older individuals (32.05) were more likely to be sentenced to ARD than males (57 percent), Blacks (44.0 percent), and younger individuals (31.8). Individuals sentenced to ARD had fewer prior arrests (0.38) and were older at the time of their first arrest (29.67). To account for differences between the treatment and comparison groups, the study authors statistically controlled for confounders in a Multilevel Logistic Regression model assessing the impact of ARD on the odds of rearrest 4 years after the final disposition. The study conducted a subgroup analysis assessing differences in recidivism by diversion/guilty conviction for white males, Black males, white females, and Black females.

Subgroup Analysis

Knoth and Ruback (2021) found there was no statistically significant difference in recidivism rates between white males in the treatment group sentenced to participate in the Accelerated Rehabilitative Disposition (ARD) and those in the comparison group given a guilty conviction. Black males in the comparison group given a guilty conviction were statistically significantly more likely to recidivate than Black males sentenced to the ARD program. Regardless of race, females in the comparison group given a guilty conviction were statistically significantly more likely to recidivate, compared with those in the treatment group sentenced to the ARD program.

These sources were used in the development of the program profile:

These sources were used in the development of the program profile: