Victim Services: Preventing SID & Child Endangerment

legal ramifications of separation, divorce, and visitation/custody issues. After a court has accepted custody arrangements, concerned parents and adults have very few options for protecting a child from a parent who drives substance impaired. Even worse, if a parent attempts to prevent the child from riding with their substance impaired parent, breach of the custody agreement could be enforced leading to further victimization. There are difficulties and inconsistencies in enforcing the child endangerment statutes.

Many of the laws are too complex, and it is dif- ficult to interpret the existing DUI/DWI child endangerment laws. As a result, these laws are not being uniformly enforced. In addition to crim- inal statutes, there is difficulty enforcing civil remedies absent a restraining order or request of participation from child protective services. Generally, there appears to be a lack of educa- tion on all aspects of the laws and the problem of child endangerment. There is a critical need for judicial education programs addressing all of the issues surrounding child endangerment. Judges need to ask convicted DUI/DWI offend- ers at sentencing if they have children and if they have ever driven substance impaired with

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