Car Crime

A significant proportion and a wide variety of all criminal activity involves cars in some way. Car Crime is the first publication to treat such crimes as coherent whole. ? Car Crime refers primarily to UK legislation and studies; however, it is also highly relevant to Australia. For what Corbett is interested in is car crime as the by-product of car culture, a universal culture which does not recognise national boundaries. The premise of the book is that car crime is a product of car culture. This sounds simple enough until one realises just what Corbett is referring to as ?car crime?. The definition is broadened from a typical one of theft of and from vehicles to basically anything illegal involving motor vehicles. Thus the topics being analysed as a coherent whole include speeding, driver fatigue, abandoning vehicles, joyriding, road-rage and other offences. Desire its relevance and the harm caused, car-related crime has been the subject of minimal theorising by criminologists. Corbett?s project is to open up this vast tract of illegal behaviour to sustained study and analysis. She succinctly applies a rage of individual, social and structural level theories to particular crimes, and to a lesser extent to car crime in general. The project is indeed very ambitious; it represents a far reaching analysis of the social and political forces that have shaped and continue to shape, law and policy in relation to motor vehicles. ? Over the past century car culture has enmeshed itself into the dominant culture of societies across the globe. This book provides a number of insights into how our reliance on cars has shaped the way these cultures have criminalised certain actions concerning them. - George Seymour, Alternative Law Journal, August 2004