‘Road rage’ is a term that became frequently used in the media in
the 1990s. While it referred to a wide and imprecise range of behaviours, it appears
to have resonated with the desires and concerns of media audiences. In this article
we consider the reasons why ‘road rage’ has proved to be such a
popular media object and examine the essential question of whether there has been a
real increase in a type of crime that could be labelled ‘road
rage’. A content analysis is used to measure the degree to which criminal
and non-criminal events are captured in ‘road rage’ stories in
the media. These results are juxtaposed against the incidence of ‘road
rage’ events reported to the police and survey findings on the perceived
likelihood of being involved in a ‘road rage’ incident. The
sudden appearance and rapid diffusion of road rage as an object of media attention
is interpreted using the natural history approach to social problems. The results
add to a growing body of findings which can be used to illuminate the trajectory of
media interests in regard to ‘new’ crimes.
Australian Bureau of Statistics
(2003) Australian Demographic Statistics December Quarter
2002. Catalogue 3101.0.
Canberra: Australian Bureau of Statistics
.
2.
Averill, J.R.
(1982) Anger and Aggression: An Essay on Emotion.
New York: Springer Verlag
.
3.
Averill, J.R.
(1983)
‘Studies on Anger and Aggression’
, American Psychologist38:
1145-1160
.
4.
Barak, G.
(1994) Media, Process and the Social Construction of
Crime.
New York: Garland
.
5.
Becker, H.
(1966) Social Problems.
New York: Wiley
.
6.
Best, J.
(1990) Threatened Children: Rhetoric and Concern about
Child-Victims.
Chicago: University of Chicago Press
.
7.
Best, J.
(1999) Random Violence: How We Talk about New Crimes and New
Victims.
Berkeley: University of California Press
.
8.
Best, J.
and
F. Furedi
(2001) ‘The Evolution of Road Rage in Britain
and the United States’, in
J. Best
(ed.) How Claims Spread, pp. 107-127.
New York: Aldine de Gruyter
.
9.
Blomquist, R.
(2001)
‘American “Road Rage”: A Scary and Tangled
Cultural-legal Practise’
, Nebraska Law Review80(17):
17-63
.
10.
Burns, R.
and
M. Katovich
(2003)
‘Examining Road Rage/Aggressive Driving: Media Depiction and
Prevention Suggestions’
, Environment and Behavior35(5):
621-636
.
11.
Cavender, G.
and
L. Bond-Maupin
(1993)
‘Fear and Loathing on Reality Television: An Analysis of
“America’s Most Wanted” and
“Unsolved Mysteries”’
, Sociological Inquiry63:
305-317
.
12.
Chiricos, T.
,
S. Eschholz
and
M. Gertz
(1997)
‘Crime News and Fear of Crime: Toward and Identification of
Audience Effects’
, Social Problems44:
342-355
.
13.
Chiricos, T.
,
K. Padgett
and
M. Gertz
(2000)
‘Fear, TV News, and the Reality of Crime’
, Criminology38(3):
755-786
.
14.
Claster, D.
(1992) Bad Guys and Good Guys: Moral Polarization and
Crime.
Westport, Conn: Greenwood Press
.
15.
Cohen, S.
(1972) Folk Devils and Moral Panics.
Suffolk: Chaucer Press
.
16.
De Moeller, O.
(1998)
‘Keeping the Lid on Anger’
, The West Australian, 10 August, p.
10
.
17.
Dicker, P.
(1996)
‘Study into Road Rage’
, The West Australian, 14 December, p.
2
.
18.
Durkheim, E.
(1895/1964) The Rules of the Sociological Method.
New York: Free Press
.
19.
Elias, N.
(1939/1978) The Civilising Process: The History of
Manners.
New York: Urizen Books
.
20.
Elias, R.
(1993) Victims Still: The Political Manipulation of Crime
Victims.
Newbury Park, Calif: Sage
.
21.
Ericson, R.
,
P. Baranek
and
J. Chan
(1987) Visualizing Deviance: A Study of News
Organization.
Toronto: University of Toronto Press
.
22.
Ericson, R.
,
P. Baranek
and
J. Chan
(1989) Negotiating Control: A Study of News Sources.
Toronto: University of Toronto Press
.
23.
Ericson, R.
,
P. Baranek
and
J. Chan
(1991) Representing Order: Crime, Law and Justice in the News
Media.
Milton Keynes: Open University Press
.
24.
Erikson, K.
(1966) Wayward Puritans: A Study in the Sociology of
Deviance.
New York: John Wiley and Sons
.
25.
Fishman, M.
(1978)
‘Crime Waves as Ideology’
, Social Problems25:
531-543
.
26.
Fishman, M.
(1981) Manufacturing the News.
Austin, TX: University of Texas Press
.
27.
Fishman, M.
(1998) ‘Ratings and Reality: The Persistence of
the Reality Crime Genre’, in
M. Fishman
and
G. Cavender
(eds) Entertaining Crime: Television Reality Programs.
New York: Aldine De Gruyter
.
28.
Fuller, R.
and
R. Myers
(1941)
‘The Natural History of a Social Problem’
, American Sociological Review6:
320-329
.
29.
Fumento, M.
(1998)
‘“Road Rage” versus Reality’
, The Atlantic Online August. Available at: http://www.theatlantic.com/issues/98aug/roadrage.htm.
30.
George, R.
(1996)
‘Road Rage’
, The West Australian, 27 April,
23
.
31.
Glassner, B.
(1999) The Culture of Fear: Why Americans Are Afraid of the
Wrong Things.
New York: Basic Books
.
32.
Groombridge, N.
(1998)
‘Masculinities and Crimes Against the Environment’
, Theoretical Criminology2(2):
249-267
.
33.
Hall, S.
,
J. Clarke
,
C. Critcher
,
T. Jefferson
and
B. Roberts
(1978) Policing the Crisis: Mugging, Law and Order and the
State.
London: Macmillan
.
34.
Harding, R.
,
F. Morgan
,
D. Indermaur
,
H. Blagg
and
A. Ferrante
(1998)
‘Road Rage and the Epidemiology of Violence: Something Old,
Something New’
, Studies on Crime and Crime Prevention7(2):
221-238
.
35.
Herman, E.
and
N. Chomsky
(1988) Manufacturing Consent: The Political Economy of the
Mass Media.
New York: Pantheon Books
.
36.
John Fairfax Holdings Ltd.
(2000) Circulation December 2000. Available at: http://www.fxj.com.au/readershipcirc/Abc1200.doc.
37.
Katz, J.
(1987)
‘What Makes Crime News?’
, Media, Culture and Society9:
47-75
.
38.
Katz, J.
(1999) How Emotions Work.
Chicago: University of Chicago Press
.
39.
Klein, R.D.
(2003)
‘Audience Reaction to Local TV News’
, The American Behavioral Scientist46(12):
1661-1672
.
40.
Lupton, D.
(1999)
‘Monsters in Metal Cocoons: “Road Rage” and
the Cyborg Body’
, Body and Society5(1):
57-72
.
41.
Lupton, D.
(2001)
‘Constructing “Road Rage” as News’
, Australian Journal of Communication28(3):
23-36
.
42.
MacDonald, E.
(1997)
‘Road Rage Rears Ugly Head in Forrestfield’
, The West Australian, 23 August, p.
2
.
43.
Malan, A
(1996)
‘Ugly Face of Road Rage Has Arrived’
, The West Australian, 10 December, p.
14
.
44.
Marshall, E.
and
N. Thomas
(2000) Traffic Calming: The Reality of ‘Road
Rage’. Briefing Note 12/00.
London: Policing and Reducing Crime Unit
.
45.
Michael, M.
(2001) ‘The Invisible Car: The Cultural
Purification of Road Rage’, in
D. Miller
(ed.) Car Cultures, pp. 59-80.
Oxford: Berg
.
46.
O’Connell, M.
and
A. Whelan
(1996)
‘The Public Perception of Crime Prevalence, Newspaper Readership
and “Mean World” Attitudes’
, Legal and Criminological Psychology1:
179-195
.
47.
Orcutt, J.
and
B. Turner
(1993)
‘Shocking Numbers and Graphic Accounts: Quantified Images of Drug
Problems in Print Media’
, Social Problems40:
190-206
.
48.
Parton, N.
(1979)
‘The Natural History of Child Abuse’
, British Journal of Social Work9(4):
427-451
.
49.
Pietila, V.
(2001)
‘Reflections on Public Discussion in the Mass Media’
, Nordicom Review1:
11-21
.
50.
Roberts, J.
(1992) ‘Public Opinion, Crime and Criminal
Justice’, in
M. Tonry
(ed.) Crime and Justice: A Review of Research, Vol. 16, pp.
99-180.
Chicago: University of Chicago Press
.
51.
Roberts, J.
and
L. Stalans
(1997) Public Opinion, Crime and Criminal Justice.
Boulder, CO: Westview Press
.
52.
Roberts, L.D.
and
D. Indermaur
(2003a)
‘Reported Incidence of “Road Rage” in Western
Australia: 1991-2000’
, paper presented at the ‘1st Asia-Pacific Injury
Prevention Conference and 6th National Conference on Injury Prevention and
Control’, Perth, Western Australia, March.
53.
Roberts, L.D.
and
D. Indermaur
(2003b)
‘Road Rage: A New Source of Trauma on the Roads or Common Assault Repackaged?’
, poster presented at the ‘ANZAPPL 23rd Annual Congress:
Trauma and Survival’, Fremantle, Western
Australia, September.
54.
Roberts, L.D.
and
D. Indermaur
(forthcoming)
‘Boys and Road Rage: Driving Related Violence and Aggression in
Western Australia’
, Australian and New Zealand Journal of Criminology.
55.
Roberts, J.
,
L. Stalans
,
D. Indermaur
and
M. Hough
(2003) Penal Populism and Public Opinion: Lessons from Five
Countries.
New York: Oxford University Press
.
56.
Schlesinger, P.
,
H. Tumber
and
G. Murdock
(1991)
‘The Media Politics of Crime and Criminal Justice’
, British Journal of Sociology42:
397-420
.
57.
Smart, R.
and
R. Mann
(2002)
‘Deaths and Injuries from Road Rage: Cases in Canadian Newspapers’
, Canadian Medical Association Journal167(7):
761-762
.
58.
Snow, R.
(1994) ‘Media and Social Order in Everyday
Life’, in
M. Aldridge
and
N. Hewitt
(eds) Controlling Broadcasting, pp. 34-50.
Manchester: University of Manchester Press
.
59.
Sparks, R.
(1992) Television and the Drama of Crime: Moral Tales and the
Place of Crime in Public Life.
Milton Keynes: Open University Press
.
60.
Soothill, K.
and
C. Grover
(1997)
‘A Note on Computer Searches of Newspapers’
, Sociology31:
591-596
.
61.
Stearns, C.Z.
and
P.N. Stearns
(1986) Anger: The Struggle for Emotional Control in
America’s History.
Chicago: University of Chicago Press
.
62.
Stearns, P.N.
(1994) American Cool: Constructing a Twentieth-century
Emotional Style.
New York: New York University Press
.
63.
Straus, M.
(1992)
‘Sociological Research and Social Policy: The Case of Family Violence’
, Sociological Forum7:
211-237
.
64.
Surette, R.
(1994) ‘Predator Criminals as Media
Icons’, in
G. Barak
(ed.) Media, Process and the Social Construction of Crime, pp.
131-158.
New York: Garland
.
65.
Townsend, J.
(1996)
‘Road Rage Attack Terrifies Woman’
, The West Australian, 14 December, p.
26
.
66.
Victorian Community Council Against Violence
(1999) Aggression and/or Violence Associated with Motor
Vehicle Use.
Victoria: Victorian Community Council Against Violence
.
67.
Wouters, C.
(1999)
‘Changing Patterns of Social Controls and Self-Controls. On the
Rise of Crime since the 1950s and the Sociogenesis of a “Third Nature”’
, British Journal of Criminology39:
416-432
.
