An aggregate level analysis of the socioeconomic correlates of drink driving offenders.

Research within urban sociology and social geography has discussed the relation between the spatial or aggregate level distribution of various social and demographic variables and a wide range of social problems. This paper takes the spirit of these studies as a starting point and applies methods of social area analysis to study drink driving offender rates within the Sunshine Coast-Brisbane-Gold Coast conurbation. The major findings of the paper are that at the aggregate level there is a strong correlation between rates of drink driving offenders and particular social and demographic factors. As such the findings support existing studies that have identified given social characteristics of drink drivers. In addition, the findings also illustrate the need to consider a range of aggregate social and demographic variables in future research.

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