Effects of Ethnicity and Nationality on Driving Attitudes and Perceived Risk of Victimisation

• Author: Michael R. Norris and Jacqueline Bergdahl
• Pages: 645-652

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EFFECTS OF ETHNICITY & NATIONALITY ON DRIVING ATTITUDES & PERCEIVED RISK

Effects of

Ethnicity and

Nationality

on Driving

Attitudes

and Perceived

Risk of

Victimisation

Michael R. Norris and

Jacqueline Bergdahl

Twenty-Nine

INTRODUCTION

There is a large but not well-integrated

literature on risk-taking. Junger, West and

Timman define risk-taking as ‘...not taking

appropriate account of the possibility of

negative consequences of one’s actions’

(2001, 440). Other researchers conceive of

risky behaviour as rejecting conventionality

(Donovan, Jessor and Costa 1991),

sensation-seeking (Hirschberger et al. 2001,

Mawson et al. 1996, Ulleberg 2003) aversion

to delaying gratification (Mischel 1981),

external locus of control (Crisp and Barber

1995) and seeking control at the boundaries

of life through edgework as a result of

alienation caused by participation in the

modern labour force (Lyng 1990).

In criminology, risk-taking can be traced

to a genetic predisposition (Wilson and

Herrnstein’s 1985, impulsivity), to social

learning (Gottfredson and Hirschi’s 1990, low

self control), or to some combination of both

genetic and environmental factors.

Robin traces the need to experience fear

from the modern philosophers Locke, Burke,

Tocqueville and Hobbes in post-modern

thought: ‘No longer awaiting the arrival of

the one true answer, we turn to fear as a

substitute foundation, albeit a negative one,

for morals and politics’ (Robin 2004, B12).

COLLEGE STUDENTS AND

RISK-TAKING

College students are likely to indulge in

risky behaviours such as cigarette smoking,