-
(单词翻译:双击或拖选)
Women Becoming Larger Percentage of Drunk Drivers
Along with greater social equality, better pay and more positions of power, women are gaining on men in another, less desirable measure: arrests for drunken driving.
Arrests of men who drive under the influence still greatly outpace those of women. But while the number of arrests of men is declining, the number of arrests of women is gradually rising.
"We've come a long way, baby, and this is not a good way," said Gail D'Onofrio, chairwoman of the emergency medicine department at Yale School of Medicine.
As the state police continue this week with their annual holiday crackdown on drunken driving, a gender1 breakdown2 for arrests in recent days is not available, said spokesman Lt. J. Paul Vance.
But over a period of years, state statistics show that women are becoming a larger percentage of all drunken drivers in Connecticut - rising from 17.4 percent of all arrests for driving under the influence in 1997 to 21.7 percent in 2006, the latest figures available, according to the state Department of Public Safety.
That might not seem like a dramatic shift, but the trend is clear: Arrests of men fell by 17 percent during those years, while arrests of women have been flat or slightly up over the decade.
Nationally, the trend is slightly different, but with the same end result: The number of women arrested for DUI increased by 28.8 percent between 1998 and 2007, while the number of men arrested for DUI dropped by 7.5 percent, according to U.S. Department of Justice crime statistics.
The reasons for this shift are diverse, according to academics, insurance experts and law enforcement officials.
More binge drinking among younger women and strict enforcement applied4 more often to women drivers might be contributing to the trend - along with a cultural change that has put more women on the road and brought them into roles of responsibility, experts said.
Young women are binge drinking more than in the past to keep up with their male counterparts, nationally and in Europe, said D'Onofrio, who is widely recognized for her work studying patients for alcohol and drug use. This is especially dangerous because women become more impaired5 from alcohol than men, partly because women have proportionately less water in their bodies than men, she said.
But binge drinking among young women might not explain the whole shift.
The answer might lie in the way that laws are enforced. Police are less lenient6 on women than they had been in the past, said Henry Kranzler, associate scientific director of the Alcohol Research Center at the University of Connecticut.
HealthTop TipsNutritionLoveLifestyleHappinessWeight Loss
Men account for the bulk of arrests for drunken driving - 78.3 percent of arrests statewide in 2006 compared with 82.7 percent a decade before. But some men might be changing their behavior in response to increased punishments and a greater societal disapproval7 in the past 10 years, Kranzler said.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration released a report this month that said the overall fatality8 rate from car crashes declined from 2007 to 2008. The same is true for crashes involving drunken men and women: There was a decline for both from 2007 to 2008.
"If women are drinking more, there should be a greater increase in the fatalities9 related to drinking, and because there isn't . . . it really does suggest that there's differential enforcement," Kranzler said.
Connecticut State Police spokesman Lt. J. Paul Vance disagrees with Kranzler's suggestion.
"I don't think we treat males or females differently today as compared to yesterday," he said.
One thing is certain: The insurance industry has taken note as the number of women drivers has increased in the past several decades. In 1963, 40 million motorists were women, accounting10 for 43 percent of drivers, said Loretta Worters, a spokeswoman for the Insurance Information Institute.
"Today, more than 88 million women are licensed11 drivers, almost half of all motorists in the U.S.," she said.
Premiums12 for young women, in particular, have risen significantly, closing a gender disparity. Thirty years ago, young women drivers paid 46 percent above the base rate for adult drivers while young men paid 187 percent above the base rate. Today, young women pay 120 percent above the base rate and men pay 185 percent, almost exactly where they were.
"Over many years, across the nation, we have seen an overall merging13 of the rates charged between men and women," said Ted3 Mitchell, a spokesman for MetLife Auto14 & Home. "This is likely the result of a number of factors - such as the fact that women are more equally participating in this country's economic life and, therefore, are on the road more and driving many more miles."
点击收听单词发音
1 gender | |
n.(生理上的)性,(名词、代词等的)性 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
2 breakdown | |
n.垮,衰竭;损坏,故障,倒塌 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
3 ted | |
vt.翻晒,撒,撒开 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
4 applied | |
adj.应用的;v.应用,适用 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
5 impaired | |
adj.受损的;出毛病的;有(身体或智力)缺陷的v.损害,削弱( impair的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
参考例句: |
|
|
6 lenient | |
adj.宽大的,仁慈的 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
7 disapproval | |
n.反对,不赞成 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
8 fatality | |
n.不幸,灾祸,天命 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
9 fatalities | |
n.恶性事故( fatality的名词复数 );死亡;致命性;命运 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
10 accounting | |
n.会计,会计学,借贷对照表 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
11 licensed | |
adj.得到许可的v.许可,颁发执照(license的过去式和过去分词) | |
参考例句: |
|
|
12 premiums | |
n.费用( premium的名词复数 );保险费;额外费用;(商品定价、贷款利息等以外的)加价 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
13 merging | |
合并(分类) | |
参考例句: |
|
|
14 auto | |
n.(=automobile)(口语)汽车 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
15 situated | |
adj.坐落在...的,处于某种境地的 | |
参考例句: |
|
|