Boy Racers and Influencing their

BehaviourDr Karen Lumsden

Department of Social SciencesEmail: K.Lumsden@lboro.ac.uk

Twitter: @karenlumsden2

Overview

• Ethnographic research with ‘boy racer’ culture in city of Aberdeen, Scotland. Interested in both:• The boy racer culture (rituals, participation, gender, class)• The response of society (police, politicians, media, local community)

• Background to Aberdeen’s ‘Bouley Bashers’• Police and local authority response• The myth of the ‘boy racer’• Lessons learned for RSOs from police response to the

drivers in Aberdeen:• Use of ASB legislation• Education

Background: Aberdeen’s ‘Bouley Bashers’• Car culture at Aberdeen’s

Beach Boulevard since late 1960s

• Urban regeneration from 1990s onwards

• Community concern• Proliferation of local and

national media articles on Aberdeen’s ‘boy racers’ (peaked 2004/5)

Media Representation‘For more than 30 years they’ve been at it – speeding recklessly up and down the Beach Boulevard. In that time the leisure complex has grown massively and become a magnet for families. But that hasn’t stopped the madness of the boy racers – or led to the authorities driving them off the roads’

(Press & Journal 2002)

Police and Local Authority Response

• Police operations• CCTV• Redesigned road layout• Education via road safety

events• Grampian Police ‘Drivers’

Group’• Provision of alternative spaces

(i.e. ‘park and ride’ car parks)• ASB legislation: seizure of

vehicles and dispersal orders

The Myth of the ‘Boy Racer’

• Importance of car modification for individual and collective identity

• Driving performances allow individuals to gain celebrity status

• Growing number of girls participate although still largely male, working-class subculture

• Not all youths, also older drivers• Challenges myths around what a

‘boy racer’ is:• > Majority took pride in driving skills and

cars

The ‘Drivers’ Group’ and Self-Policing

• Grampian Police ‘Drivers’ Group’ successful as a way of information sharing between police/community and drivers

• The drivers also engaged in their own informal policing re. ‘how to behave’ in the culture

• Informal rules and expectations which members were expected to adhere to (i.e. parking on ‘trammers’ and not beside the flats, not speeding/racing)

Lessons for RSOs: ASB Powers

• In case of Aberdeen’s boy racers, ASB powers were only successful in the short term

• Long term implications – stigmatized group and impacted negatively on police-driver relations

• Tension between successful consensual management of young drivers..

• And enforcement-led approaches reflected via use of ASB legislation

• More education needed on regulations and best-practice for car modification

Lessons for RSOs: Driver Education

• Focus on education and interaction via community policing – must extend to roads policing

• ‘Drivers’ Group’ particularly successful as a way of information sharing between police and drivers

• Recognition of the myth of the ‘boy racer’ or street racer – not always young drivers…

What does the term ‘boy racer’ mean?

‘Well it’s stereotypical. Isn’t it? I guess by their definition I typically am [a ‘boy racer’] but then what does the term mean? I am, but I don’t really race. In fact, not that I don’t really race, I never have raced! Most people who come down here aren’t racers either. It’s just a few idiots who spoil it for the rest of us.’

(Interview with Robert)

Further Information

• Access publications via webpage: http://www.lboro.ac.uk/departments/socialsciences/staff/lumsden-karen.html

• Or email me directly: K.Lumsden@lboro.ac.uk