States with child endangerment laws vary in provisions and enforcement. Additionally, public awareness is often so low, many people do not know such statutes exist. Individually, the situation is even more complicated because families with child endangerment issues are often already coping with the 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 impaired. Even worse, if a parent attempts to prevent the child from riding with their impaired parent, breach of the custody agreement could be enforced, leading to further victimization. The law enforcement officers, judge, civil attorney and prosecutor on the first panel identified difficulties in enforcing the child endangerment statutes. The following issues were identified: • There is difficulty in interpreting the existing DUI/DWI child endangerment laws; many of the laws are too complex. • There is a lack of education on all aspects of the laws and on the problem of child endangerment in general. • There is difficulty in not being able to enforce civil remedies absent a restraining order or request of participation from child protective service agencies. • Laws are not being uniformly enforced. • Violation of terms of the divorce decree, as it relates to impaired driving with minor children in the car, is not resulting in a change in custody or visitation. • There is a critical need for judicial education programs addressing all the issues surrounding child endangerment. • DUI/DWI offenders’ parental status is not a consideration at sentencing in terms of probation restrictions against driving after drinking with children in the vehicle. Unfortunately, criminal and civil justice experts on the second Child Endangerment Expert Panel reported that these challenges still exist on a large scale and have had minimal remediation over the last decade.
After a court has accepted custody arrangements, concerned parents and adults have very few options for protecting a child from a parent who drives impaired. Even worse, if a parent attempts to prevent the child from riding with their impaired parent, breach of the custody agreement could be enforced, leading to further victimization.
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