After some online messaging with Mr. Markham I was able to spend the day doing independent research about drunk driving and the way it’s been sentenced in the past. He shared with me some of the data that he’s gathered and shared about the precedent of sentencing drunk drivers.
The most interesting information I found was about what’s considered a grossly aggravating factor (GAF) for deciding an impaired driver’s sentence. It was mostly littered with the obvious, such as driving with a child in the car, manslaughter, or being a habitual impaired driver. However I couldn’t find anywhere that mentioned anything about socioeconomic status, whether they’re employed/unemployed, whether they have dependents, etc. It seems like those very important factors are handled on a case by case basis and extremely susceptible to implicit biases, which depending on your view point could be a good or bad thing.
I’m excited to discuss my findings with Mr. Markham tomorrow!