Victim Impact Panel (VIP)

The program is designed to emotionally impact DUI offenders so that they begin to consider the pain and suffering drunk driving causes victims.  The Panel is comprised of three or four volunteers who have each had their lives changed forever because of an impaired driving crash.  Panel members speak of the crash and about how it has affected them and their families to a roomful of offenders sentenced to attend the presentation.  The program impacts offenders on a highly personal and emotional level, thereby enabling them to seriously consider the tragic, ultimate consequences of Driving Under the Influence of alcohol and other drugs. The comment most frequently offered by offenders is that although they had previously heard about the effects of drunk driving, they had never really considered what it might be like if they personally were responsible for causing the pain and suffering described by our panelists. The offenders that are truly impacted by the stories they hear remember those stories over time and the memory replays itself if the offender is faced again with the choice to drink and drive. We have found that the DUI offenders not affected by the stories they hear (primarily because they are in denial about their substance abuse problem) are in need of more intensive treatment.