Do road offenders constitute a unique clinical and sociodemographic profile? The relationship between crime and road safety

ABSTRACT

Road crime is one of the most prevalent types of crime, which is why more and more frequent offenders and repeat offenders enter prison convicted of serious crimes. The present study aimed to determine the clinical and sociodemographic profile of road offenders, trying to establish differences and relationships with other types of crime and with community drivers. The study involved 513 drivers, classified into four groups: inmates with crimes against road safety (CTRO); inmates with crimes against road safety and with another type of criminal history (CTRO&OO); prisoners convicted of other criminal offences (COO); community drivers with no criminal record (DWCR). All were given a battery of instruments that assessed personality traits, sensation-seeking, psychiatric symptomatology, alcohol dependence, aspects related to driving and sociodemographic data. The results reveal similar profiles, between the CTRO&OO groups and the COO, in personality, search for emotions and psychopathological symptoms and important differences between the groups of road offenders (CTRO AND CTRO&OO) and of these with the DWCR. The classification and regression tree identified as relevant predictors, the number of fines and traffic accidents, alcohol dependence and obsessive-compulsive symptoms. These data can be useful for the prevention and rehabilitation of offenders against road safety.

KEYWORDS:

• Criminology
• traffic offenders
• personality
• alcohol dependence
• psychopathology

Acknowledgements

The authors thank the inmates and staff at Galician prisons for their generous cooperation and participation.

Data availability statement

The data from this study are publicly available to download from the Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research (ICPSR): Project ID openicpsr-180481 (https://www.openicpsr.org/openicpsr/workspace?goToPath=/openicpsr/129361&goToLevel=project#).

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by INOU PROJECTS UNIVERSITY OF VIGO AND PROVINCIAL COUNCIL OF OURENSE [grant number 1206 INOU].