At the present time, women make up approximately one quarter of all DUI arrests. While this means that significantly fewer women are being arrested for driving under the influence of alcohol than men, it also means that the number of women who are being arrested for DUI in recent years is much higher than it was twenty years ago.  Specifically, during the 1980s, only about nine percent of all DUI defendants were women.

The increase in the proportion of women who are being arrested for driving under the influence of alcohol is not often publicized, as well as the idea that women’s drunk driving cases may actually be different than those of their male counterparts.  Nonetheless, there are differences between men and women’s DUI cases, and these differences may have a significant impact on the outcomes of the cases of female DUI defendants who acknowledge them.

Scientific evidence is important in DUI cases. The manner in which alcohol affects a person’s body is dictated, at least in part, by their metabolism. Men and women metabolize things differently, so a man and a woman with the same body weight could drink the same amount of alcohol and end up with different blood alcohol levels. The woman’s blood alcohol level would be higher than the man’s after drinking the exact same amount of alcohol over the same period of time because she metabolizes alcohol more slowly than he does. Also, women experience fluctuations in hormone levels throughout the course of their menstrual cycles. These changes affect metabolism, and, can therefore affect blood alcohol levels. The differences in how men and women metabolize alcohol are important because breath testing devices are calibrated to produce an accurate reading for the average male driver. This difference in calibration can cause breath testing devices to produce readings that are not only inaccurate for female drivers, but which overestimate the amount of alcohol in their bodies.

The differences between men and women carry over into other areas of DUI arrests, too. Field sobriety tests are designed to measure the physical performance of men. Women who engage in these tests are more likely than men to perform them poorly, even when they are sober. The experience of a traffic stop is stressful, and under that stress, many women act on the mistaken belief that compliance will prove their innocence or reduce the consequences. They may comply with every request that is made of them and answer every question that the officer asks without realizing that they have a right to answer very few questions and even to refuse the field sobriety tests without a penalty.  In other words, a woman’s willingness to answer every question and comply with every request does not decrease her chance of being arrested. It actually increases the chance that she will be arrested because she has given the police more information that they could use to support their arrest.

Men and women deserve equal treatment under the law. Unfortunately, there are differences between men and women which make getting equal treatment difficult in DUI cases. To learn more, contact Texas DUI Defense Attorney Alex Tyra today. Schedule your consultation now, by calling (903) 753-7499, or use the convenient contact form on our website.