Keeping up, and keeping on: Roads policing, risk and the law-abiding driving offender

Wells, H; Savigar, L

doi:10.1177/1748895817738555

Keeping up, and keeping on: Roads policing, risk and the law-abiding driving offender

Wells, H; Savigar, L

Authors

Helen Wells h.m.wells@keele.ac.uk

L Savigar

Abstract

Roads policing is the most likely generator of an adverse-outcome encounter between the general public and the police and is therefore one of the most likely situations in which individuals are confronted with their own ‘law-abidingness’, or lack of it. Despite this, it has so far failed to excite much criminological interest. The article will propose that the concepts of ‘risk’ (as a political as well as sociological concept) and ‘acceleration’ (of technological change, as well as everyday life) can be used to explain the controversial and apparently unsettling image of roads policing in recent years. This article reflects on how speeding offences (researched between 2002–2006) and mobile phone use by drivers (researched between 2013–2016) reveal much about how drivers see themselves, their priorities and the law.

Acceptance Date	Sep 25, 2017
Publication Date	Apr 1, 2019
Journal	Criminology and Criminal Justice
Print ISSN	1748-8958
Publisher	SAGE Publications
Pages	254-270
DOI	https://doi.org/10.1177/1748895817738555
Keywords	Mobile Phone; Speeding; Risk; Acceleration; Law-Abiding; Driving
Publisher URL	https://doi.org/10.1177%2F1748895817738555