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The Latino DWI Defendant – Sentencing to Make a Difference

By Tony Asion, Director of Public Safety,
NJC Faculty for Traffic Issues in the 21st Century

4/8/2008

Jose Vazquez shrugs his shoulders when his co-worker asks him if he wants a beer after work. Jose recently arrived from Michuacan and is working at a construction site. That day Jose drove home after drinking nearly 12 beers.

The fact that Latinos are disproportionately involved in DWI and DWI-related crashes is without dispute. The U.S. Department of Transportation, National Highway Traffic Safety Administration’s Fact Sheet: National Hispanic Impaired Driving Campaign (Dec. 9, 2003) states that the leading cause of death among Latinos ages one to 34 is car crashes and the greatest part of those were alcohol related.

Why is this phenomenon so prevalent among Latinos? What does a judge, intent on developing effective sentences that reduce recidivism, need to know about this important subculture?

It’s not a science when we see who, among Americans, are at greater risk of being involved in DWI’s on the road today. Those would be males between the ages of 18 and 26. This group is the one to take chances most often with their lives. People in this group feel they are invincible and that accidents happen to other people, not them. If you look at the Latinos in the United States today, you will notice that the greatest percentage are males between the ages of 15 and 24. So reason number one for the disproportionate number of Latino DWI’s is the age group.

Besides the fact that this age group has the largest DWI rate, it also has the largest drinking group as a whole. A great example of this is college students. Students attending college consume alcohol at disproportionate rates. One reason is that these young people are away from home for the first time, are a bit lonely, free for the first time in their lives and subject to peer pressure. If we compare this group of people to the same Latino population you will find reason number two for the disproportionate number of Latinos drinking. They are often away from home, many for the first time, are lonely, and certainly fall for the peer pressures to drink.

The third reason has more to do with the way we Latino are brought up. Latino males are taught from a very young age that being a man (macho) is one of the most important things one has to learn. Part of this machismo dictates that we must not show pain, or weakness. As a result we are taught not to cry. Young Latino males are often told by their fathers not to cry because men don’t cry, and not to show anyone our weaknesses. As a result we can’t let anyone know we can’t handle our liquor. This would be a weakness. Another thing we can’t do is to allow someone else to drive, much less a woman, for that would tell everyone that we can’t handle our alcohol. When you put all three of these things together, we can see the difficulties young Latino men have to overcome to keep from drinking and driving.

Given this cultural paradigm, what factors can a judge identify to fashion an effective sentence? It was not enforcement or the fear of dying that generated these results, it was reaching for the soul. Cookie cutter approaches don’t work for everyone. In the case of the Latino driver, the consequences that mattered most were not fear of arrest or even dying. We at El Pueblo, Inc., believe we have made great headway in preventing DWI among Latinos. In order to achieve this we had to explore other things Latino males are taught at a young age – family values, neighborhood connections and loyalty. It was the fear of a family member having a difficult time because of something they had done that gave us the headway in getting through to Latino DWI offenders.

These issues are discussed in more detail in The National Judicial College’s provocative course, Traffic Issues in the 21st Century and Sentencing Motor Vehicle Law Offenders. Also, learn more about creating a bias-free environment in your courtroom at these courses: Building a Bias-Free Environment in your Court and Ethics, Bias and Judging: Reaching Higher Ground: A Web-Based Course.

When Jose Vazquez asked his wife to drive after a party one night, I knew that we were making a difference. You see Jose is that guy that tells his boys not to cry. But he too is learning.