Traffic Crimes and risky driving: The role of personality and driving anger

Abstract

The current study aims to examine the influence of personality traits (alternative Zuckerman model) and driving anger in the explanation of risky driving style in individuals convicted for road safety offences (N = 245), using as a basis an adaptation of the context-mediated model. This is a transversal, descriptive study designed to be implemented by means of surveys, in which took part 245 men convicted of road safety offences from five prisons in Galicia (a region in northwestern Spain) took part. The average age of the participants was 38.73 years (Sx-9.61), with a range between 18 and 64 years. All participants had three or more years of driving experience. Our data shows that the Impulsive-Sensation Seeking (Imp-SS) personality trait had a direct and positive effect on dangerous driving, while the Activity (Act) trait had a direct but negative effect. The Aggression-Hostility (Agg-Host) trait, in turn, influenced the risky driving style, but not directly, but by raising driving anger levels, so it acted as a powerful mediator between the Aggression-Hostility (Agg-Hos) trait and the risky driving style. In general, our research partially replicates and expands previous findings regarding the model used, the aggression-hostility personality trait (Agg-Host) was placed in the distal context, driving anger in the proximal context, while age and personality traits Activity (Act) and Impulsive-Sensation Seeking (Imp-SS) were direct predictors. The results of this study may have practical implications for the detection and rehabilitation of offenders and penalties for road safety offences.

Effects of personality traits on bus drivers’ prosocial and aggressive behaviours: The moderated mediating role of risk perception and gender

“…Future studies should further investigate the relationships between personality traits, risk perception and on-road aggressive and prosocial driving behaviours, thus validating the present findings. A third limitation is that except for the variables mentioned in this study, there are also some important environmental factors that affect risky driving, such as work shifts [ 38 ], previous penalties [ 39 ] and the amount of work traffic in the service area [ 40 ]. Future research should further explore the influences of bus driver’s own characteristics and environmental factors on their driving behaviours.…”

Special measures for the prevention of criminal offenses in the realm of road transport sector

“…Assessment of global personality traits and aggressive driving can be very useful for predicting risky driving style (Faílde-Garrido et al, 2021). The researchers suggest conducting primary prevention, where psychotechnical tests should be included in their assessment tools to identify driving styles and personal characteristics or personality traits that may pose a risk to driving.…”

“…Tertiary preemption/rehabilitation should be aimed at criminals who have committed multiple offenses, or at the convicts who end up in prison. In addition, it is necessary to identify different profiles of road criminals, investigating which therapeutic strategies are best suited for each profile of criminals (Faílde-Garrido et al, 2021).…”

“…In this light, there is a number of variables that affect a traffic accident. They can be combined into a complex network of interactions between the road track characteristics, vehicle characteristics, environmental conditions, as well as driver's conduct (Faílde-Garrido et al, 2021). Of all the above variables, it is the human factor that primarily accounts for the causal relationship of road accidents.…”

Statistical correlation between accounted road accidents, road traffic administrative offenses and criminal offenses against traffic safety and transport in Ukraine

“…Дослідницька група у складі José María Faílde-Garrido, Yolanda Rodríguez-Castro, Antonio González-Fernández та Manuel Antonio García-Rodríguez [11] встановила щільний зв"язок між агресивним водінням та «автотранспортними» кримінальними правопорушеннями.…”