The relationship between traffic and non-traffic offending in Western Australia
| Author | Geoffrey Barnes,Monica L Crosetta,Jesse Parmar,Elizabeth Pritchard,Christine McComb,Paul House |
| Published date | 01 June 2021 |
| Date | 01 June 2021 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1177/0004865821995860 |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
Article
The relationship between
traffic and non-traffic
offending in
Western Australia
Monica L Crosetta
Psychology at Work Laboratory, The University of Western
Australia, Perth, Australia
Paul House , Jesse Parmar and
Christine McComb
The Office of Applied Criminology, Western Australia Police
Force, Perth, Australia
Elizabeth Pritchard
Psychology at Work Laboratory, The University of Western
Australia, Perth, Australia
Geoffrey Barnes
The Office of Applied Criminology, Western Australia Police
Force, Perth, Australia
Abstract
Self-selection policing is an approach whereby serious underlying criminality is detected by an
offender’s minor crimes (known as trigger offences). Strategic offences are offences that
indicate an increased likelihood that the associated offender will engage in later offending.
The purpose of this study was to determine if first-time serious traffic offending in Western
Australia indicates previous and/or future non-traffic criminality, thereby demonstrating the
utility of serious traffic offences as trigger offences and strategic offences. The authors col-
lated the crime data of all first-time serious traffic offenders in Western Australia between
December 2004 and December 2014. Using this data, survival analyses were conducted to
determine if and when a first-time serious traffic offende r committed an initial non-traffic
Corresponding author:
Elizabeth Pritchard, Faculty of Science, The University of Western Australia, M304 35 Stirling Highway, Perth,
AU-WA Western Australia 6009, Australia.
Email: liz.pritchard@uwa.edu.au
Journal of Criminology
2021, Vol. 54(2) 179–200
!The Author(s) 2021
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DOI: 10.1177/0004865821995860
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offence within 10 years of their first serious traffic offence. When comparing this data to data
from the Australian Bureau of Statistics, the authors found that first-time serious traffic
offenders are more likely than the average Western Australian to have a previous or
future initial non-traffic offence. Some groups of first-time traffic offenders were more
likely to commit non-traffic offences than others including males, individuals under the age
of 25, drug drivers and drivers without authority. These results support the use of first-time
serious traffic offences as trigger/strategic offences and could be used to identify and divert
traffic offenders with versatile criminal histories and traffic offenders at risk of future criminal
activity.
Keywords
Early intervention, non-traffic offending, self-selection policing, self-selection triggers, strate-
gic offences, traffic offending, Western Australia Police Force
Date received: 20 July 2020; accepted: 19 January 2021
For most adults, driving is a largely automatic task. Only novice drivers think labori-
ously about how to drive a car or follow the road rules. Despite its automaticity,
members of the general public might pay more attention to their driving style if they
knew it reflected their personality and behavioural tendencies. As quoted by Fleiter et al.
(2015, p. 1), “we drive as we live”. Accordingly, if individuals are displaying risky or
deviant behaviour on the road, it is likely that they are displaying similar behaviours in
other aspects of their lives.
Individuals who frequently disobey the road rules are more likely to receive traffic
infringements, fines, demerit points and other penalties. These consequences are
imposed predominantly to deter individuals from putting themselves and others at
risk of a road traffic accident. However, it is unlikely that these consequences have a
deterrent effect for all individuals. One study found that receiving legal consequences for
a speeding violation had no deterrent effect. Rather, individuals with speeding violations
were more likely to receive a citation in the future (Lawpoolsri et al., 2007).
Because current driving violations might indicate future traffic offending, and driving
behaviour implies individuals’ behavioural tendencies, people who violate traffic laws
might also commit non-traffic-related offences. The notion that offenders commit more
than one type of offence is known as offence versatility (Roach & Pease, 2016). Offence
versatility is a key assumption of Roach and Pease’s (2016) self-selection policing
theory, which posits that an individual’s more serious criminal activity can be uncovered
when they are apprehended for committing a minor offence. These minor (but poten-
tially serious) offenders offer themselves up for police scrutiny rather than being
detected using more traditional and sometimes discriminatory forms of policing, e.g.
profiling.
If one type of minor offence is typical of revealing an offender’s more serious crim-
inality, it is known as a trigger offence. Roach and Pease (2016) claim that traffic
offences (e.g. disqualified while driving) can be used as trigger offences. There might
180 Journal of Criminology 54(2)
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