East Lansing Officer Travis Bove drunk drivers6.JPG

A study shows that women who drink and drive may be struggling with depression or high-stress jobs and using alcohol as a coping mechanism.

(MLive file photo)

LANSING – FBI statistics show a growing number of women are being arrested for driving while drunk as well as for causing more alcohol-related deaths since 2003.

"What we've found is that whether it's judges, probation officers, or treatment practitioners, they are seeing more women going through the system for DWI," Erin Holmes, research scientist with the Traffic Injury Research Foundation in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, said.

According to FBI statistics, between 2003 and 2012, the latest statistics available, annual DUI arrests among women increased from 174,000 to 211,000 – a 21 percent increase nationwide. Conversely, DUI arrests among men dropped by nearly 17 percent nationally from 780,000 to 650,000.

Holmes, who recently presented her findings at the Michigan Traffic Safety Summit in East Lansing, conducted a study of drunk driving arrests involving women in

Ottawa County, Mich.; San Joaquin County, Calif.; Greene County, Mo.; and Westchester, Warren, and Dutchess Counties in New York. The study was voluntary and worked in cooperation with those counties and their court systems.

"You see more women who are in the workforce these days, so women are driving more miles and driving at night when they are more likely to be arrested for drunk driving," Holmes said. "It's also more socially acceptable for women to drink in public than it used to be – particularly young women."

Another possible reason: "They've also eliminated a lot of first offender diversion programs, so more women are being pushed through the criminal justice system," Holmes said.

While arrests have gone up for women, drunk driving crashes have decreased for both men and women in Michigan, according to the Michigan Office for Highway Safety Planning. The numbers from 2003 to 2012: from 11,400 to 7,250 for men and from 3,203 to 2,563 for women.

In 2012, 35 crashes caused by female drivers were fatal – with 68 percent of those crashes involving women between the ages of 21 and 34.

"Drunk driving arrests are actually down; the numbers have steadily decreased over the years," Sgt. Perry Curtis, the head of the Michigan State Police's Alcohol Enforcement Unit since 2000.

"When I started this job [in the alcohol unit], we arrested a little over 62,000 people. In 2012, we were just a little over 37,000," he said. "But the percentage of females [arrested] has increased."

Stress, relationship issues lead to increase in drinking and driving

For Angela Muñoz, 32, of Detroit, her 2008 DUI came after drinking and

driving back from a friend's house in Southfield.

"I wasn't completely familiar with the area and I pulled into a gas station to turn around," she said Munoz, who proceeded to turn the wrong way on a one-way street and was spotted by a Southfield Police officer.

Muñoz had a blood alcohol level of .11, well over the .08 limit. "They said I was one of the nicest people they had dealt with," she said jokingly. "There was no point in acting crazy. I was in the wrong."

Curtis said it is common in drunk drivers to think that they're fine to drive because alcohol quickly impairs judgment.

"[Assigning] a designated driver or having a backup plan is something you do when you're sober," Curtis added. "Your judgment goes and you think that you can conquer the world."

Muñoz spent the rest of the night sobering up in jail and was eventually charged with DUI. She was sentenced to a year of probation, a driver's intervention program, and $5,000 in fines and fees. She could have faced stiffer sanctions.

Relationship issues, work stress add to the trend

Mike Stratton, a substance abuse counselor in East Lansing, says that when looking at societal issues is a very good indicator of what is causing this increase in arrests and substance abuse in women.

"Most of the substance abuse issues I see with women are often linked to stress or relationship problems," Stratton said.

Holmes' study also showed that m

any DUI arrests are preceded by a problematic event, such as an argument with a loved one, a bad breakup or a divorce.

Muñoz admitted that personal issues, and not simply partying, are what led to her DUI.

"I had just ended an almost eight-year relationship and was still dealing with that situation," she said. "I started drinking a lot around that time, almost daily."

Stratton said that such things as depression, anxiety, and biological issues play a key role.

"Women metabolize alcohol differently than men do and they do it in such a way that they're going to get more intoxicated more quickly," he said. "If you take a 150-pound woman and a 150-pound man and you give them the same amount of alcohol, the woman will be at a higher blood-alcohol content than the man would be.

"The legal limit continues to drop lower and lower, so they're also arresting more people than they used to," he said. "It used to be that people would go out and have three or more drinks and not think of themselves as drunk. Now they're showing up as legally over the limit."

Contrary to popular belief, Curtis said that there is no selective enforcement of DUI by gender. Police officers aren't more apt to let a woman slide with a warning than a man.



"I've always seen everyone treated the same, especially with drunk driving," Curtis said. "There is no tolerance whether you're a male or female," he added. "If you catch them, you have to make the arrest."

The overall numbers still heavily skew 3-1 toward men in terms of drunk driving arrests - something that Holmes repeatedly cautions against in her study.

"The important thing is not to look at this and assume that female drunk driving population is exploding," she added. "I've been asked before if this is an epidemic or some sort of phenomenon.

"We can't say definitively that more women are drinking and driving now than they were previously. All that we know is that the arrest numbers are going up."

Follow Jay Scott Smith on Twitter: @JayScottSmith. Email him at JSmith44@mlive.com.

Follow MLive Lansing on Facebook and Twitter.