Social stigma and economic behaviour

Are drivers over the limit acting rationally when they get into their vehicles and pull out into the traffic? Surely they understand the possible consequences for themselves including the risk of conviction, higher insurance premiums, fines, probable loss of employment and the impact on their families?

It might be rational for some drivers to decide that they can drive their vehicle under the influence of alcohol providing they factor into the equation the expected private costs and benefits of doing so. Becker’s (1968) expected utility model of criminal behavior might be usefully applied to decisions that drivers take when they know they are over the legal limit for being in charge of a vehicle.

But what might be a reasoned decision for the driver can have terrible consequences for society as a whole as many people know to their cost. Is there a role for the government to penalise through exposing drunk drivers to social disapproval? In the state of Ohio they have tried just this approach.

Which of these options for dealing with the problem do you feel is most appropriate / effective / fair for the persistent drunk driver? (I am assuming here that the severity of the penalty including terms of imprisonment and size of fine would rise with the number of times an offender is caught and the severity of the offence)

Taking away the driving licence of a drunk driver for an extended period starting immediately after the positive test

Imposing stiff minimum fines for each offence

Mandatory driver education programme and a compulsory re-test before being allowed to drive again (all paid for by the driver)

Mandatory attendance in an alcohol treatment program paid for by offender

Vehicle forfeiture

Forcing drunk drivers to put special license plates on their vehicles — in Ohio, convicted drunk drivers have special number plates with red numbers on a yellow background so other motorists will know exactly what they’ve done

What do you think about the last one? Is it a fundamental infringement of civil liberty for the convicted driver even if he / she has already served a penalty for their offence? How costly would it be to enforce in the UK? Or does it provide valuable information to other motorists on the road about the likely state of the driver in the car in front and behind you?

What role does and should social stigma or social disapproval play in altering people’s behaviour for example in trying to reduce what we regard anti-social behaviour and in the consumption of what economists sometimes like to call ‘de-merit goods’?

Or would you take a polar opposite view and legalise drunk driving?