Ross Homel Aust. Journal of Social Issues 1981 Volume 16 Number 4 Motoring Offences Crime: Some for Social as Priorities and Action Research This paper highlights recent trends in criminology and assesses their relevance for road safety research. It is concluded that research priorities should be in the areas of general deterrence (particularly the value of random breath testing), physical prevention and study of the criminal justice system (especially the police). In addition, close attention should be paid to the political context within which the research is carried out. Lessons for methodology include greater use of direct and self reported measures of behaviour in addition to official statistics, experimental tech- niques rather than 'quasi-experimental', where possible, and interrupted time series analyses of the effects of legislative changes. There is a great need for a close analysis of the way in which traffic crash and violation data are recorded. By any standard, death and injury on the roads of Australia is one of our major social problems. Broadly speaking, we may say that it is a problem which may be solved in two ways: by modifying the road user or by modifying his environment. Much has been achieved in recent years through the latter approach (better roads and better vehicle design) but muoh remains to be done. There is a particular need for research into the ways in which road users interact with their environment so that such things as road signs can be modified to reduce the chance of a crash.! Nevertheless, road safety experts seem generally agreed that neither avenue of research-human or environmental---'should be negleoted. 2 This article focuses on ways in which the behaviour of road users may be modified, particularly through the use of legal sanctions. The perspec- tive is criminological. The assumption is made that only a minority of crashes occur as a result of vehicle defects or other strictly engineering factors, that the majority of crashes occur as a result of 'human error' of Ross Homel, BSc(Hons), MSc, is Senior Lecturer, School of c Behavioural Sciences, Macquarie University. His interests include research methods in the social sciences, social indicators and research into the. criminal justice system. His current research includes a study of drinking drivers from the point of view of deterrence, sentencing and police apprehension procedures. He was formerly Deputy Director, NSW Bureau of Crime Statistics and Research. This is a revised version of a paper presented to the Road Safety Initiatives Conference, Melbourne, 1980. 268