The relations between accidents, deviance and leisure time

This article is concerned with two questions: (1) is there a relation between mild deviance and involvement in accidents? (2) are there correlates of problem behaviour which are also correlates of involvement in accidents? The findings show that participation in mild deviance is strongly associated with having been involved in an accident. To investigate whether there are common correlates the study looked at leisure-time activities. Generally it is found that leasure-time activities are related to deviance as well as to accident involvement. This supports the claim for a common aetiology of both accidents and deviance. The results support the idea that there is an exposure effect of leisure-time activities on accidents, as well as the fact that individuals have a differential accident liability. Support for this latter explanation comes from the finding that certain variables which decrease exposure (such as passive forms of leisure time) do increase the likelihood of accidents. The results have theoretical implications which are briefly discussed. For example the findings indicate that explanations of crime need to include individual differences and cannot resort to macro-level explanations only (such as subculture or strain theories). An important policy implication is that social services in general (such as health services and correctional services) do, to a certain extent, deal with the same (type of) individuals. (A)