Your state has decided to pass a law making it illegal to drive while using a ce

Question

Your state has decided to pass a law making it illegal to drive while using a cell phone or texting. The purpose of the new law is not really to punish people since this is not a "bad" crime, like hurting someone or stealing. Rather, the goal is to deter people from driving in a dangerous manner. Prepare a memo to the committee that is looking into this project—the committee needs to understand the concept of deterrence. Your memo should be of 3 to 4 pages and include:
•A justification for adopting this law, including an explanation of the concept of deterrence
•A explanation of whether deterrence is a Classical concept or a Positive one
•A suggestion for a deterrent punishment, with an explanation as to why you believe that this punishment will have the desired deterrent effect
•An explanation of whether there are any characteristics of potential offenders that influence whether deterrence will work—in other words, whether certain deterrence efforts will work on some offenders and not others
•An explanation of what the state will have to do in order to achieve deterrence

Explanation / Answer

An increasing number of studies show that driving while talking on a cellphone can be dangerously distracting. Yet most states have not barred handheld phones, and none have banned all drivers from using hands-free devices.

More than 50 research studies have reported the risks of cellphone use while driving. Talking on a cellphone while driving makes a person four times more likely to be in a crash. This is a much higher risk than most other distracting activities, including eating, drinking, reading billboards, listening to the radio, or talking to other passengers. It’s the cellphone conversation that diverts people’s attention from the road.

The National Safety Council has called for a total ban on cellphone use while driving because more than 100 million people are engaged in this high-risk activity every day.

In fact, hands-free-only laws tend to send the wrong message — that drivers can safely talk on phones without getting into crashes. And such laws may actually do harm .

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