title: Traffic citation rates among drivers of different residency status in the United States.
abstract: Racial/ethnic groups in the United States may be overrepresented in motor-vehicle incidents (crashes and violations), particularly among low-acculturated immigrants coming from countries in which traffic laws are not well enforced. Some evidence suggests just the opposite. We collected and analyzed information on the residency status of licensed drivers in Florida and Tennessee to examine the hypothesis that the prevalence of seat-belt nonuse, DWI, speeding, and failures to obey a traffic signal was higher among recent immigrants than among US citizens. We rejected this hypothesis. Both in Florida and Tennessee, US citizens were more likely to be cited for DWI, seat-belt, or speeding violations than the noncitizens. However, immigrants were more often cited for failure-to-obey than US citizens. We concluded that residency status does, appear to play a role in the likelihood of traffic violations, but this role is far from uniform; varying depending upon the type of traffic violation, the racial/ethnic group, and the state in which the violation occurred.
authors.affiliation: Pacific Institute for Research and Evaluation, 11720 Beltsville Drive, Suite 900, Calverton, MD 20705-3111, USA. romano@pire.org
authors.forename: Eduardo
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Romano
authors.forename: Scott
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Tippetts
authors.forename: James
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Fell
authors.forename: Angela
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Eichelberger
authors.forename: Milton
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Grosz
authors.forename: Connie
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Wiliszowski
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000428:Alcohol Drinking / Q000208:ethnology / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence; D001334:Automobile Driving / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D016009:Chi-Square Distribution; D003415:Crime / Q000208:ethnology* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D016208:Databases, Factual; D054242:Emigrants and Immigrants; D005260:Female; D005431:Florida; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D044469:Racial Groups; D012622:Seat Belts / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D016019:Survival Analysis; D013714:Tennessee; D055815:Young Adult