ABSTRACT
Of all the various sections of this research, the study of the offenders as a group was perhaps the most interesting. But it was not as easy as it might have been because the documentary evidence was concerned not so much with the characteristics of the offenders as with the events in which they were involved. There did not seem to be the interest in the offenders as people that might have been expected, and would almost certainly have been found, had these offenders been regarded as ‘criminals’ by the police. Where the latter are concerned, the recording of personal details, such as date of birth, way of life, background, and so on, is painstakingly thorough so that the task of tracing the offender, should he offend again, is made easier. With the motoring offender, even the serious one, this consideration does not seem to apply; he is treated with all the other traffic offenders as part of a group so large that time and patience preclude the recording of much detail. It was necessary, therefore, to make do with approximations about age and occupation, and to make numerous inferences from statements — a way of working which permits personal interpretations that may be open to question as such, and may not be the conclusions that other people would draw, looking at the matter from a different point of view.
