Violent offenders —on and off the roads

Press, 5 August 1978, Page 12

Violent offenders —on and off the roads

New Zealanders who commit serious motoring offences have similar social characteristics to the people who commit other violent offences, according to a Justice Department research paper. Their behaviour should be recognised as culpable or criminal, and not merely as the result of “accidents” or “bad luck”. People who commit serious motoring offences, especially those who offend more than once, should be treated as criminals in the same manner as other violent offenders. The methods of trying, sentencing, punishing and rehabilitating those who repeatedly commit serious

motoring offences should be distinct from the methods used to deal with the great majority of less serious Offences by motorists. These findings come from the new study, “Violence on the Roads,” by K. R. Parsons, the sixth study in the research series being undertaken by the Department of Justice. The research was based on a study of 1509 serious motoring offenders convicted in New Zealand between 1965 and 1969. Their social characteristics were examined and the research traced their pattern of motoring and non-motoring offences for 15 years, ending in 1974. People who commit

serious motoring offences have distinctive characteristics. “They are more likely to be young, male, of nonEuropean ethnic origin, a semi-skilled or manual worker with a criminal nonmotoring record of violent, anti-social behaviour,” says the study. Of the 1507 offenders studied, 94.7 per cent were males, 25 per cent were nonEuropean (compared with less than 10 per cent of the population as a whole at the time), and 68.5 per cent of offenders were under the age of 30.

Almost half the people who committed serious motoring offences had crimp nal records for non-motoring

offences, and more than three quarters of these had been convicted of a criminal offence involving anti-social behaviour on at least one occasion. “Many dangerous driving practices are accountable for in terms of male proving behaviour,” says the report. “The car is important to al! adolescents as a criterion of adulthood and expression of masculinity.” To obtain the acceptance of their peers, young males need to show a readiness to take risks and to compete aggressively. "For many, the car provides one of the very few avenues for earning status.” Those “who live by the values of the sub-cul-

ture of violence" will carry this behaviour over into their driving. "The car' and the motorcycle should be ‘deglamourised’ so they are no longer tire phallic symbols of male virility,” says the report in its final discussion of the implications of its findings. Studies in Western Europe, North America, and Australia suggest that people who commit serious offences on the roads are likely also to commit crimes of violence not connected with motoring offences. The surveys suggest that there is a segment of the community, a “sub-culture” in the jargon of sociology, which places positive merit

on the use of violence in relations between people, whether on or off the roads. The values of people in this group encourage or prescribe the use of physical violence in certain situations. “Violence for them is a common experience, a ‘life-style’,” says the report. People who repeatedly commit serious, reckless, accident promoting offences on the roads are likely to be associated with this group in the community. Their treatment and punishment should be part of a wider programme to break up the “sub-culture of violence” as a means of reducing crimes of violence, on and off the roads.