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Created: March 3, 2004
Latest Update: March 3, 2004
jeannecurran@habermas.org
takata@uwp.edu

Sleepy, but it's OK for them.

Driving Without Sleep: A Crime?

Site Copyright: Jeanne Curran and Susan R. Takata and Individual Authors, March 2004.
"Fair use" encouraged.

This piece is based on an article in the Los Angeles Times on March 3, 2004, by Jeanne Wright: On the Alert for Drowsy Drivers . . . Backup.

We've talked about sleep deprivation and "sleep restriction" before. But mostly I've tried to remind our commuter students that risking their own and others' lives by driving when they haven't had adequate sleep is a poor choice. Living in the fast lane forces most of us to make some poor choices some of the time, but traffic in urban, and even some rural, areas is so limiting our discretionary time and the things "we just gotta do" that we need to bring this issue to much greater awareness in public discourse.

The widowed mother of three children, who slept inadvertently through a number of my classes, is now a therapist. Hopefully, she's getting a little more sleep. After a number of reminders that she was risking others' lives and the future well-bing of those three children she was trying so hard to protect, she did finally skip a few of my classes and get the afternoon snooze she so desperately needed. But it took several reminders and pointed discussions because she was a committed and intelligent student. She didn't want to restrict educational oppportunities that were legitimately fitted into her schedule. So she restricted sleep instead. Not good. Not good that we still insist that our classes should have priority over anything else in your life. Students no longer have that luxury, and neither do we.

Although I'm grateful that Jeanne Wright published this piece for us, I see the problem as much more extensive than truck drivers who keep going for 24 or 30 hours at a time. Sleep deprivation depends on stress, anxiety, general health, and life's specific and immediate demands. You may have had seven hours of sleep last night, and still not be rested enough to drive responsibly. There are no easy and adequate measures. But you owe it to yourself, to those who care about you, and to those of us who drive the same roads to make sleep restriction and sleep deprivation choices with reasonable attention to the constraints of your own social context.

I'd like to see a project in the Spring 2004 on sleep restrictions. jeanne

Discussion Questions:

1. I perceive that most people are more "tired" than they used to be. Is that an accurate perception?

   Consider that most of us are "tired." Not just older students juggling multiple responsibilities, but younger students, too, including very young ones in K-12. What do you think has changed in our infrastructure that makes us believe that life is more exhausting now? Do you think life IS more exhausting now? Do you think that most people feel that way? Or just some groups? Or is this "personal experience data," and are we wrong about our ecological perceptions? (That is, if we did a survey, would the results confirm our personal feelings on the issue? Ecological correlations are correlations that are valid over a large group, even though not necessarily valid for every member of the group. IQ scores and intelligence are highly correlated in an ecological sense. They do measure intelligence over large groups. But they're not necessarily valid for individuals. That's because the individual may have had a headache or been distracted on the day the test was given. We just consider that "error" in the test correlation, and don't worry about it. But it matters very much to the individual whose score it is. That's why most IQ test scores shouldn't be interpreted as invidual scores.)

2. Do we need to "do a study" on tiredness before we address the issue seriously as a sociological issue?

   Consider the traffic statistics. Consider road rage. Would such macro statistics justify our recognition of sleep deprivation as a social issue? How could we handle the "personal experience data" of our own perceptions and the perceptions of those around us? Could we use such theoretical approaches as postmodernism, postcolonialism, and post Englightenment recognition of observer and cultural bias to discuss our perceptions without drawing irrefutable conclusions that we're right, and those who fail to see the importance of the issue are wrong?

3. If we perceive ourselves as "more tired," how do we handle validity of that perception?

   Recall W.I.Thomas' conclusion that "If men [sic] believe situations to be real, they are real in their consequences." How would our conclusion of validity relate to Catharine MacKinnon's dictum that in "consciousness raising" groups, feminist methodology requires that the woman's perception be considered valid, that she not be required to "prove" that her perception is right. How would the approach of postcolonialism help understand this situation? Could we say that what we believe is interactive with the social structure, context, in which we find ourselves? So if our culture reflects that it is "normal" to work and go to school and raise a family and . . . , not be "any more tired than our parents were when they did these things" . . . are we more likely to not perceive ourselves as "more tired," or to attribute the "more tired" to our own individual failings if we do feel "more tired?"

   Could you portray this dilemma of perception of fatigue and sleep restriction over time (decades) by photographs garnered from a family album, by photographs of current daily activities, by drawings, by music, by "found" and "made" art? That's the stuff of a visual sociology exhibit project.

   Would it matter if a highly acclaimed new health study concluded that people have more energy now than they ever had, and that the perceptions of "triedness" are really exaggerated by the new trend toward obesity?

   Consider that the study would count as cultural information, and if accepted and seriously reported by the media, it would become part of the social context in which we make our individual decisions. That might mean that teachers would be less believing of a "tired" excuse. That might mean that "serious" students would be less forgiving of themselves for feeling tired. That would certainly mean that the official view seems to be that "tiredness" is an individual condition not caused by the infrastructure for all of us.

   Please consider all this when you decide to "do a study." Sociology is notoriously bad at basing its current studies on macro data available to us, on multiple perceptions, over time. All such considerations run counter to positivism that focuses on the collection and analysis of "scientific data," and de-emphasizes the interactive nature of scientifcally collected data with the social context (infrastructure) in which the study goes on. In other words, until public discourse begins to recognize and show concern for sleep restrictions, no one will even think to get funding for a study on sleep restrictions, and probably won't find anyone willing to fund it. Studies (even positivistic ones) follow the infrastructure's understanding of social and physical issues.

4. What are the social implications of considering driving while drowsy or driving without adequate sleep criminally negligent?

   How do we define crime? (Quinney: law socially defined. Does that fit here?)

   Consider the difficulty of deciding at what point drowsiness could be well enough measured to let the individual know that he/she had crossed the line from responsible drowsiness to irresponsible drowsiness. Remember there won't be a breath analyzer test, or a blood alcohol test for drowsiness. Even if crime is socially defined, its actual prosecution requires acceptable "evidence." What would that evidence be?

   Consider the complications of conflating responsibility and criminal negligence. Can the law effectively dictate social responsibility?

5. Would it matter that the guards in prisons have probably been as guilty of drowsy driving as any of the rest of us, including the convicted person unlucky enough to have caused a serious accident?

   Consider whether we are dealing with "crime" or with "being unlucky enough to get caught." Would this perspective apply to other crimes? What about "criminal intent?" How would this compare to driving under the influence? How would it compare to "felony murder," in which one is culpable for any crime, including murder, that occurs in the course of committing a felony? What about criminal intent in felony murder?

6. Consider the problem of "bad things happening to good people." To what extent does a criminal act as defined by law represent the "bad" or "good" nature of the person that performs that act?

   Consider moral relativity. Kohlsberg and the man who steals from a pharmacy to get life-saving medicine he couldn't afford for his dying wife. Was that stealth a crime? Did that stealing suggest a "bad" nature that must be punished? How do you think this issue might come up in Driving While Drowsy? Consider that you're fifteen miles from home, feel the flu coming on, and don't have the money to stop at a motel, or a family member or friend who could come for you. Consider that you are a female and afraid to pull over and sleep in your car, especially if the flu is coming on, because you might hust get worse. If you decide to drive home in this drowsy state, does that indicate a "bad" nature, or "bad" judgment? Would your answer be different if you had an accident? If you got home safely? Can you see that your decision is going to be affected by your social network and your social position? If you've got lots of friends and family, chance is greater someone can come for you. If you've got money, you have more choices. Does any of this matter in legal consideration of the criminal nature of your eventual decision? Should it?

7. If you think we'll need moral relativity in judging the criminality of driving while drowsy, do you think we should consider moral relativity generally in criminal acts? Do we?

   Consider the penalty phase of a death penalty trial. Consider the philosophy of juvenile rehabilitation. Consider the intent of the perpetrator in rape. (If the perpetrator can prove that he/she did not intend rape, and could not tell from the social context that it was rape, does that matter. Consider the Kobe Bryant case (2004).