By William C. Head, Esq., Atlanta, GA

A recent statistical study conducted by Rod Gullberg, supervisor of the of the State of Washington’s breath test program, reveals a great deal of valuable data about the modern drinking patterns of persons arrested for DUI. Gullberg, an adjunct instructor at the Borkenstein Institute in Bloomington, Indiana, is nationally recognized for his work in statistical analysis. [http://www.indiana.edu/~lawactn/faculty/gullberg/gullberg.html] .

This article will endeavor to interpret some of the “numbers” from the State of Washington, which are a likely representative of national trends. Washington state probably has a higher number of Asians and Native Americans than other states, but these numbers are relatively small when compared to the total population.

Certain sociological changes may have increased the number of women getting arrested for DUI, based on these new statistics. In 2003, 45,769 people were arrested for DUI in Washington state. Men accounted for 78.2% and women accounted for 21.8% of total arrests. The split of male and female citizens in Washington state is virtually 50-50 [2,934,300 males and 2,959,821 females, according to the 2000 census], so these numbers seem to be closely aligned with the true numbers of drinkers.

Twenty-five years ago, women constituted about 19% of all arrests across the U.S.A. This increase may be attributable to several social factors including (1) higher divorce rates, (2) more women in the work place, and (3) more social acceptability for women to engage in social functions without a male companion.

One county, King County (Seattle), had almost 38% of all DUI arrests for the State of Washington. According to the most recent census figures, King County only accounts for 29.47 % of Washington’s total population. This statistic supports a general national trend that major metropolitan areas tend to have a higher incidence of DUI arrests than rural or less populated areas, per capita.

Washington is a state for which a “refusal” is still possible (as opposed to states that forcibly draw blood if a breath or blood test is declined). About one-sixth (16.8%) of all DUI arrestees refused to be tested in Washington. Men slightly outnumbered women in “refusals” (17.1% to 15.8%).

Gullberg’s statistics show, however, that certain racial groups tended to “refuse” to be tested at a far greater number than average. Native Americans declined 25.3% of the time and African-Americans were close behind at 22.6%. Asian drivers were most likely to submit to testing.

Statistics on gender differences (combined with racial distribution) revealed several interesting trends. Female Native Americans constituted over one-third of all Native American DUI arrests (34.0%), while female African-Americans constituted only about one-sixth (17.1%) of the total African-American DUI arrests in Washington.

By gender, men and women arrested for DUI had virtually identical “mean” breath alcohol content (BrAC) (0.141 for women and 0.140 for men). However, Native Americans who submitted to testing had higher than average BrACs (0.164) while Asians who submitted to being tested had the lowest average (0.122).

One of the more interesting statistics was that certain “age groups” dominated DUI arrests. Gullberg broke down his age brackets by “decade” (i.e., under 20, 20 to 29, 30 to 39, etc.) The “20 to 29” bracket accounted for a whopping 38% of all arrests. The “30 to 39” group made up another 24% of total arrests and the “40 to 49” segment made up another 20%. So, about 82% of all arrests are of drivers between age 20 and 49.

Finally, Gullberg reports that of the subjects who took a “chemical test”, 85.1% had BrAC levels of 0.080 or more. That leaves 14.9% of those who were tested having a BrAC of under the “adult” legal limit. Gullberg’s statistics, however, show about 13% of all arrests were for drivers under age 21, so only about 2% of those adult drivers arrested who submitted to testing had BrAC levels under 0.080. Accidents may account for most of these DUI cases.

For those who make their living defending DUI cases, these statistics are significant in the area of jury selection. For example, the low incidence of arrest for African-American females and all Asians (both male and female) shows that these groups may not be ideal jurors. Of course, exceptions exist to any generalization. From a business standpoint, the “20 to 49” age group is a target market (82%) especially when adjusted for the nearly 4 to 1 ratio of male-to-female arrests.