Illegal Street Racing

Paper Summary:

This paper discusses the sport of illegal street racing which, although seen by many as a dangerous and harmful activity is actually full of custom, tradition, and history. It shakes off the stereotype of street racing as just another juvenile crime group by showing that the majority of participants are in fact employed full-time, generally as mechanics, or in other trades such as carpentry, boiler making or shop fitting while others tend to be in full-time education, either at high school or ay local universities. It shows how although 18- to 25-year-olds make up the core the illegal street racing culture, the trend cuts across all races, as well as both genders and how it provides a drug-free and violence free society to compete in, while still earning respect from their peers.

From the Paper:

"The street racing sub-culture draws its main interest, however, due to two elements which also exist in the mainstream culture, those of masculinity, and the symbol of the car. Various sociological and criminological authors have discussed this link. Australian sociologist Rob White, in his book No Space of Their Own, focuses on the way in which, for many men, "the car becomes indelibly stamped into their consciousness as a key symbol of masculinity" (1990, 124-25). Criminologist Chris Cunneen (1985, 85) claims that the relationship is one of power, arguing, ?There is a necessity in seeing the way cars and motorbikes are symbolic objects of masculine power."

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