1,721,247 research outputs found
Psychosocial influences on drug driving in young Australian drivers
No full textEpidemiological evidence regarding the occurrence of drug driving amongst young drivers is concerning. This study examined the prevalence of drug driving in a sample of 331 young Australian drivers (average age 24 years), as well as a number of social and psychological influences associated with the behaviour. Results revealed that 26% reported having driven under the influence of psychoactive drugs at least once in their lifetime, and 15% indicated driving within 6 hours of taking drugs and alcohol. While no participants reported being convicted of a drug driving offence, 3% had been involved in one or more crashes whilst drug driving (10% of those who had ever drug driven). Investigations revealed that drug driving behaviour was significantly correlated with vicarious punishment avoidance (r = .41) and direct punishment avoidance (r = .35), suggesting an important link between young peoples’ perceptions about detection and punishment and their own propensity to drug drive. Sensation seeking (r = .24) and attitudes (r = .34) were also significantly correlated with drug driving. Further evidence indicated that those who perceived more social and non-social rewards than punishments associated with drug driving, were more likely to engage in the behaviour. Results suggest that perceptions about detection and punishment are an important influence upon drug driving behaviour for young drivers. The social and non-social rewards associated with drug driving also play an important role
A survey of unlicensed driving offenders
No full textThis paper reports the findings of a survey of 309 unlicensed driving offenders interviewed at the Brisbane Magistrates Court. A wide range of offenders participated in the study, including: disqualified and cancelled drivers; expired licence holders; drivers without a current or appropriate licence; and those who had never been licensed. The results suggest that unlicensed drivers should not be viewed as a homogenous group. Significant differences exist between offender types in terms of their socio-demographic characteristics; driving history; whether they were aware of being unlicensed; and their behaviour while unlicensed. Among some offenders, unlicensed driving appears to be indicative of a more general pattern of non-conformity; almost two-thirds of the disqualified and never licensed drivers had prior criminal convictions. While many offenders limited their driving while unlicensed, others continued to drive frequently. Moreover, almost one-third of the sample continued to drive unlicensed after being detected by the police. While there was some evidence that offenders attempted to drive more cautiously while unlicensed, this was not consistent with other aspects of their behaviour. For example, almost one-quarter of the offenders admitted driving at some time when they thought they were over the legal alcohol limit. The results highlight the need to enhance current policies and practices to counter unlicensed driving. In particular, there is a need to examine current enforcement practices since over one third of the participants reported being pulled over by the Police while driving unlicensed and not having their licence checked
The effectiveness of drink driving licence actions, remedial programs and vehicle-based sanctions
No full textThis paper reviews the effectiveness of three important types of drink driving sanctions: licence actions, remedial programs and vehicle-based actions. The sanctions are assessed in terms of their effect on the drink driving behaviour of both the general community and offenders. The results confirm that licence actions, such as licence suspension/disqualification, are very effective. In terms of general deterrence, they are the only sanctions that have been consistently associated with reductions in community-wide drink driving behaviour. As an offender management tool, licence actions are effective in reducing the overall offence and crash rates of offenders, although many offenders continue to drive. In contrast, remedial programs appear more effective in reducing alcohol-specific offences among offenders. On balance, the best outcomes with offenders appear to be achieved through the combined use of licence actions and remedial programs. Promising results have also been achieved through the use of alcohol ignition interlocks and, to a lesser extent, other vehicle-based sanctions designed to reduce the incidence of illegal driving among offenders. However, drink driving recidivism and disqualified/suspended driving remain serious problems requiring further attention. The implications for policy development and research in Australia are discussed
The road safety implications of unlicensed driving : A survey of unlicensed drivers
No full textThis report documents the findings of a survey of 309 unlicensed driving offenders interviewed at the Brisbane Central Magistrates Court. A wide range of offenders participated in the study including disqualified and suspended drivers, expired licence holders, drivers without a current or appropriate licence, and those who had never been licensed. The results indicate that unlicensed drivers should not be viewed as a homogenous group. Significant differences exist between offender types in terms of their socio-demographic characteristics, whether they were aware of being unlicensed or not, their behaviour while unlicensed, and the factors contributing to their behaviour. Among some offenders, unlicensed driving appears to be indicative of a more general pattern of non-conformity and illegal behaviour. While many offenders limited their driving while unlicensed, others continued to drive frequently. Moreover, almost one-third of the sample continued to drive unlicensed after being detected by the police. One of the strongest predictors of both the frequency of unlicensed driving and continued driving after detection was whether the offenders needed to drive for work purposes when unlicensed. While there was some evidence that offenders attempted to drive more cautiously while unlicensed, this was not always reflected in their reported drink driving or speeding behaviour. The results highlight the need to enhance current policies and procedures to counter unlicensed driving. In particular, there is a need to examine current enforcement practices since over one-third of the participants reported being pulled over by the Police while driving unlicensed but not having their licence checked
The psychosocial characteristics and on-road behaviour of unlicensed drivers
No full textUnlicensed driving remains a serious problem for road safety, despite ongoing improvements in traffic law enforcement practices and technology. While it does not play a direct causative role in road crashes, unlicensed driving undermines the integrity of the driver licensing system and is associated with a range of high-risk behaviours. This thesis documents three studies that were undertaken to explore the scope and nature of unlicensed driving, in order to develop more effective countermeasures to the behaviour.----- \ud
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Study One utilised official road crash data from the Australian state of Queensland to compare the crash involvement patterns of unlicensed drivers with those of licensed drivers. The results confirmed that unlicensed driving is a relatively small, but significant road safety problem. Unlicensed drivers represent over 6% of the drivers involved in fatal crashes and 5% of those in serious injury crashes. Based on a quasi-induced exposure method, unlicensed drivers were found to be almost three times as likely to be involved in a crash than licensed drivers. In the event of a crash, those involving unlicensed drivers were twice as likely to result in a fatality or serious injury. Consistent with these results, the serious crashes involving unlicensed drivers were more likely to feature risky driving behaviours, such as drink driving, speeding and motorcycle use, than those involving licensed drivers.-----\ud
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Study Two involved a cross-sectional survey of 309 unlicensed driving offenders who were recruited at the Brisbane Central Magistrates Court. The survey involved a face-to-face interview that took approximately 25 minutes to complete and achieved a response rate of 62.4%. A wide range of offenders participated in the study, including: disqualified and suspended drivers; expired licence holders; drivers without a current or appropriate licence; and those who had never been licensed. The results reinforced concerns about the on-road behaviour of unlicensed drivers. Almost one quarter of all the offenders reported driving unlicensed when they thought they might have been over the alcohol limit. Similarly, 25% reported exceeding the speed limit by 10 km/h or more on most or all occasions, while 15% admitted that they didn't always wear their seat belt. In addition, the results indicated that unlicensed drivers should not be viewed as a homogeneous group. Significant differences were found between the offender types in terms of their socio-demographic characteristics (age, education level, prior criminal convictions); driving history (prior convictions for unlicensed driving and other traffic offences); whether they were aware of being unlicensed; the degree to which they limited their driving while unlicensed; and their drink driving behaviour. In particular, a more deviant sub-group of offenders was identified, that included the disqualified, not currently licensed and never licensed drivers, who reported higher levels of prior criminal offending, alcohol misuse and self-reported drink driving. The results of Study Two also highlight the shortcomings of existing police enforcement practices. Almost one-third of the sample reported that they continued to drive unlicensed after being detected by the police (up until the time of the court hearing), while many offenders reported experiences of punishment avoidance. For example, over one third of the participants reported being pulled over by the police while driving unlicensed and not having their licence checked.-----\ud
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Study Three involved the further analysis of the cross-sectional survey data to explore the factors contributing to unlicensed driving. It examined the influence of various personal, social and environmental factors on three aspects of the offenders' behaviour: the frequency of their driving while unlicensed; whether they continued to drive unlicensed after being detected; and their intentions to drive unlicensed in the future. This study was also designed to assess the capacity of a number of different theoretical perspectives to explain unlicensed driving behaviour, including deterrence theory and Akers' (1977) social learning theory. At an applied level, the results of Study Three indicated that personal and social factors exert the strongest influence over unlicensed driving behaviour. The main personal influences on unlicensed driving were: the need to drive for work purposes; exposure to punishment avoidance; personal attitudes to unlicensed driving; and anticipated punishments for the behaviour. The main social influences reflected the social learning construct of differential association, namely being exposed to significant others who both engage in unlicensed driving (behavioural dimension) and hold positive attitudes to the behaviour (normative dimension). At a theoretical level, the results of Study Three have two important implications for traffic psychology and criminology. Firstly, they provided partial support for Stafford and Warr's (1993) reconceptualisation of deterrence theory by demonstrating that the inclusion of punishment avoidance can improve the overall predictive utility of the perspective. Secondly, they suggested that social learning theory represents a more comprehensive framework for predicting illegal driving behaviours, such as unlicensed driving. This is consistent with Akers' (1977; 1990) assertion that formal deterrence processes can be subsumed within social learning theory.----- \ud
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Together, the results of the three studies have important implications for road safety. Most importantly, they question the common assumption that unlicensed drivers drive in a more cautious manner to avoid detection. While the findings indicate that many offenders reduce their overall driving exposure in order to avoid detection, this does not appear to result in safer driving. While it remains possible that unlicensed drivers tend to act more cautiously than they would otherwise, it appears that their driving behaviour is primarily designed to reduce their chances of detection. In terms of countermeasures, the research indicates that a multi-strategy approach is required to address the problem of unlicensed driving. Unlicensed drivers do not represent a homogeneous group who are likely to be influenced by the threat of punishment alone. Rather, innovative strategies are required to address the wide range of factors that appear to encourage or facilitate the behaviour. Foremost among these are punishment avoidance and the need to drive for work purposes
Road safety and international visitors in Australia: looking beyond the tip of the iceberg
No full textMotor vehicle crashes consistently emerge from the travel medicine literature as the most common cause of injury and death for tourists. Yet there has been very little empirical research into the factors contributing to such crashes, and even less attention to the social and economic consequences of non-fatal crashes among tourists. Some reasons are offered for this neglected area of travel medicine, and Australian data is presented to illustrate the scale of the issue
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
Full text linkThe present study examines one of the fundamental aspects of author co-citation analysis (ACA) - the way co-citation
counts are defined. Co-citation counting provides the data on which all subsequent statistical analyses and mappings
are based, and we compare ACA results based on two different types of co-citation counting - the traditional type that
only counts the first one among a cited work's authors on the one hand and a non-traditional type that takes into
account the first 5 authors of a cited work on the other hand. Results indicate that the picture produced through this non-traditional author co-citation counting contains more coherent author groups and is therefore considerably clearer. However, this picture represents fewer specialties in the research field being studied than that produced through the traditional first-author co-citation counting when the same number of top-ranked authors is selected and analyzed. Reasons for these effects are discussed
Impaired driving countermeasures : an Australian perspective
No full textThe prevalence of impaired driving in Australia\ud
Regulatory approaches used to manage:\ud
– Alcohol impaired driving\ud
– Other drug impaired driving\ud
Key countermeasures\ud
– Lower blood alcohol limits\ud
– Random breath testing (RBT)\ud
– Random drug testing (RDT)\ud
Ongoing challenges and future direction
Research priorities in driver training: bridging the gap between research and practice
No full textWhile there is a strong community perception that specialised driver training is an effective road safety countermeasure, there is currently no clear evidence that it produces safer drivers compared to less formalised approaches to learning. A number of factors have been suggested to account for this apparent lack of effectiveness. In particular, it has been suggested that conventional approaches to driver training do not systematically address the perceptual and cognitive skills required for safe driving, or the motivational or attitudinal factors which can exert a powerful influence on driver judgement and decision-making. Hence, it is possible that with further research and development that more effective driver training programs could be developed. With this prospect in mind, this paper identifies three main priorities for future research in the area. \ud
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While assessing the crash outcomes achieved by driver training should remain a priority, there is a need for evaluations to focus on a broader range of outcomes and on the processes involved in training. \ud
There is a need to focus more research attention on improving current driver training practices, particularly in relation to the development of hazard perception and decision-making skills, self-monitoring processes, and strategies to reduce the impact of risky attitudes and motivations on driving. \ud
There is a need for more theory-driven approaches to the development and evaluation of innovative training programs. This is required to ensure that training practices are based on sound principles of behaviour change, rather than on expert opinion. \ud
It is important to note that the research priorities identified in this paper cannot be addressed in any one program of research. Rather, a philosophy of incremental improvement is required. While some important driver training research initiatives continue to occur in Australia, it is an area that receives limited funding. While this is perhaps not surprising, given the state of the evidence, there is a need to ensure that the research that does occur is well directed and coordinated, and communicated to practitioners. This is vital to bridge the gap that currently exists between research and practice in the area of driver training
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