ABSTRACT
During discussions with the supervisor of this research, with police officers, lawyers, and members of the public when planning the study, it became evident that a fairly definite stereotype of the motoring offender seems to exist. Generally speaking it is that he — the offender is typically a male — is a thoroughly respectable law-abiding person when he is not behind a steering wheel, and that he usually drives a private car. He is seen to take his offence and punishment in his stride and not to suffer any social ostracism as a result. And as an ‘upright’ citizen he learns his lesson from his prosecution and does not tend to repeat his offence. Overall the picture is of a technical offence, and of an offender with whom we can identify easily, and about whom jurymen tend to think ‘there but for the grace of God go I’.
