Abstract
Motivated by the serious issue of Driving Under the Influence of alcohol (DUI) and the difficulty to track DUI offenders’ conditions during scheduled meetings for probation officers. This study explores how to leverage probation force to support offenders on probation, who convicted of DUI, in reducing the risk of DUI recidivism. A mobile support system based on the concept of therapeutic jurisprudence(TJ), called SoberMotion, designed and prototyped to assist offenders on probation in recording alcohol use by utilizing customized breathalyzers connected to a phone app installed on their phones via Bluetooth. The phone app also identifies high-risk moving events to remind offenders checking if sober before operating vehicles. A three-month field study was conducted to evaluate the feasibility and potential of SoberMotion. Participants included 15 DUI offenders on probation. By complementing the alcohol screening tests with self-operating high-risk events, we found that 6 intervention participants use SoberMotion to avoid potential DUI behavior by performing multiple tests before operating vehicles. Relatively, control participants have difficulty in recalling their alcohol-related behaviors; therefore, they might have memory biases on self-operating high-risk events. Qualitative interviews were conducted to draw five salient themes demonstrating how the probation power influences the participants through SoberMotion. The study contributes by providing quantitative and qualitative emerging themes which helps offenders exploring ways to reduce the risk of DUI recidivism.