Melanie's Law for drunk driving penalties in Massachusetts are severe. These laws are very popular for drunk driving offenses throughout the country. In order to reduce the number of deaths caused due to drunk driving offense, the Melanie's laws were introduced in Massachusetts. The Melanie's laws came into existence after a 13 year old girl named Melanie Powell killed in a car accident caused by a drunk driver. The Massachusetts legal legislature enacted Melanie's laws on October 2005 for drunk driving penalties. Based on the severity of the offense deterrence, retribution, and rehabilitation are the three major criminal punishments applicable for drunk driving in Massachusetts drunk driving laws penal theory.
Deterrence and retribution are considered to be severe drunk driving penalties for DUI, DWI, OUI and OWI.Deterrence can be General deterrence or Individual deterrence. The main aim of General deterrence is to pass a message to the people, not to commit any crime. In order to make people understand that punishment will follow the commission, General deterrence is made. The detection of General deterrence creates a threat of punishment for violating the traffic rules and results in prosecution for the offenders. Individual deterrence resembles retribution. The main aim behind individual deterrence is to make the people understand that if once an individual is punished for a crime he will not offend again for the fear of being punished.
The main of retribution is to justify the society by punishing the criminal offenders. The criminal offenders should be injured in retribution. The retribution punishments can be fines, incarceration or sometimes even death. The society feels the means of justification for retribution in punishment. Rehabilitation is the right way to eliminate the crimes in the society. If charged under drunk driving penalties then they should be sent for rehabilitation. Imposing retribution is not always good. If the offense is not a serious one then the criminals should be sent for rehabilitation. Rehabilitation helps criminals transform into productive members of the society.
In Massachusetts according to Melanie's law any one operating a vehicle with a blood alcohol concentration of .08% or higher is treated as a drunk driver and is punishable for drunk driving offense. Approach a good OUI lawyer who can help you protect your driving rights and help you come out of the charges, if you are charged for OUI/DUI/DWI in Massachusetts.
