The "homogamy" of road rage: understanding the relationship between victimization and offending among aggressive and violent motorists.

The issue of "road rage" has received increasing media and scholarly attention in recent years. Using a representative sample of 2610 adults from Ontario, involvement with road rage was surveyed across demographic subgroups. Incidents of road rage were divided into two categories, verbal-gesturing road rage and physical-threats road rage. Drawing upon violence and criminological literature, experiences of road rage victimization and offending were explored, as well as the extent to which individuals were simultaneously the victims and perpetrators of road rage. Results challenge findings from the violence literature that males and young adults have the greatest propensity for violent victimization. Road rage offending was predominantly a male activity, while there were no gender differences in victimization. Moreover, road rage was not isolated among young adults; rather, road rage was prominent across all ages, with the exception of seniors. Consistent with the existing literature, road rage was higher in urban settings.

[1]  Richard L. Dukes,et al.  Effects of aggressive driving and driver characteristics on road rage , 2001 .

[2]  E. Scott Geller,et al.  Measuring road rage: development of the Propensity for Angry Driving Scale , 2001 .

[3]  Diane Nahl,et al.  Road Rage and Aggressive Driving: Steering Clear of Highway Warfare , 2000 .

[4]  S. Singer.  Homogeneous Victim-Offender Populations: A Review and Some Research Implications , 1981 .

[5]  D. Parker,et al.  Anger and aggression among drivers in three European countries. , 2002, Accident; analysis and prevention.

[6]  R. Smart,et al.  The prevalence of road rage: estimates from Ontario. , 2003, Canadian journal of public health = Revue canadienne de sante publique.

[7]  Gary F. Jensen,et al.  Gender, Lifestyles, and Victimization: Beyond Routine Activity , 1986, Violence and Victims.

[8]  R. Smart,et al.  Deaths and injuries from road rage: cases in Canadian newspapers. , 2002, CMAJ : Canadian Medical Association journal = journal de l'Association medicale canadienne.

[9]  Robert J. Sampson,et al.  Violent victimization and offending: Individual-, situational-, and community-level risk factors. , 1994 .

[10]  Clayton Neighbors,et al.  Self-Determination Theory as a Framework for Understanding Road Rage' , 2001 .

[11]  Michael R. Gottfredson,et al.  Victims of Personal Crime: An Empirical Foundation for a Theory of Personal Victimization , 1977 .

[12]  Michael Fumento,et al.  ROAD RAGE VERSUS REALITY: A MEDIA COINAGE THAT RESTS MORE ON THE INFECTIOUS APPEAL OF ALLITERATION THAN ON THE WEIGHT OF EVIDENCE. , 1998 .

[13]  Stephen W. Baron,et al.  Routine Activities and a Subculture of Violence: A Study of Violence on the Street , 1993 .

[14]  D. Farrington,et al.  Victim as offender in youth violence. , 1995, Annals of emergency medicine.

[15]  Hans C. Jessen,et al.  Applied Logistic Regression Analysis , 1996 .

[16]  P. Allison.  Survival analysis using the SAS system : a practical guide , 1995 .

[17]  D. Rathbone,et al.  CONTROLLING ROAD RAGE: A LITERATURE REVIEW AND PILOT STUDY , 1999 .

[18]  Elisabeth Wells-Parker,et al.  An exploratory study of the relationship between road rage and crash experience in a representative sample of US drivers. , 2002, Accident; analysis and prevention.

[19]  R. S. Lynch,et al.  Development of a Driving Anger Scale , 1994, Psychological reports.

[20]  S. Stansfeld,et al.  Road rage: a psychiatric phenomenon? , 2001, Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric Epidemiology.

[21]  Janet L. Lauritsen,et al.  Conventional and Delinquent Activities: Implications for the Prevention of Violent Victimization among Adolescents , 1992, Violence and Victims.

[22]  David Finkelhor,et al.  Risk Factors for Youth Victimization: Beyond a Lifestyles/Routine Activities Theory Approach , 1996, Violence and Victims.

[23]  Terance D. Miethe,et al.  Understanding Theories of Criminal Victimization , 1993, Crime and Justice.

[24]  Marvin E. Wolfgang,et al.  Subculture Of Violence , 2010 .

[25]  Alfred DeMaris,et al.  Logit Modeling: Practical Applications , 1992 .

[26]  Robert J. Sampson,et al.  Deviant Lifestyles, Proximity to Crime, and the Offender-Victim Link in Personal Violence , 1990 .

[27]  D. Parker,et al.  Are aggressive people aggressive drivers? A study of the relationship between self-reported general aggressiveness, driver anger and aggressive driving. , 2001, Accident; analysis and prevention.