“I’ll just do my time”: The role of motivation in the rejection of the DWI court model

Abstract

In the last decade, driving while intoxicated (DWI) courts based on the therapeutic court model have proliferated. Although the typical DWI court program allows offenders with multiple DWI offenses to avoid jail time and get their drivers’ licenses back sooner, not all offenders who are offered the opportunity to participate in DWI court choose to take advantage of it. Others try but drop out of the program early on. We conducted qualitative interviews with twelve people who were offered the opportunity to participate in an urban DWI court in a Midwestern county between 2007 and 2010, but who either chose not to participate or who tried but did not succeed in the program. The authors point to the relationship between intrinsic and extrinsic motivation in order to explain the findings and ultimately inform practitioner methods for engaging potential DWI court clients and enhancing success rates.