Dr Fiona Morrison1, Dr Michael Rowlands2, Ms Kim McAvoy1
1Inside Psychology, Eastwood, Australia, 2Monash University, Clayton, Australia
Biography:
Dr Morrison is the director and principal psychologist of a clinical and forensic private practice in Adelaide. She has a background in academia, and has tested a group treatment protocol for aggressive scripts in prisoners. She continues to engage in research pertaining to violence, as well as sexual offence risk factors. She has also worked as a treating psychologist across various prison settings. Her forensic practice led her to notice the presently highlighted literature gap in assessing recidivism risk amongst those who have committed driving offences.
The importance of accurate and evidence-based risk assessment tools has been well-established. However, there is currently no research that establishes risk factors for recidivist driving offenders. Moreover, little is known about risk factors common to such offences at all. Thus has resulted in a lack of interventions to prevent dangerous driving. Additionally, high-risk offenders are released into the community, without specific intervention to manage their heightened risk of recidivism. Four studies have been proposed and initiated to address this significant literature gap.
The first study is a comprehensive systematic review of the literature, examining factors that have been linked to or proposed to impact dangerous or recidivist driving offences. Initial findings from this study indicate that substance use, antisociality, general offending histories, thrill-seeking, impulsivity, early exposure to risky driving, and fixed traits such as age and gender, play a significant role in predicting recidivist driving offence risk.
A second study would review Australian court transcripts, to create a typology of driving offenders.
A third study would anonymously sample the Australian general public via an online questionnaire. People would be asked to disclose their driving behaviour, fines and minor offending incurred, and formal driving charges and convictions. They will also be asked about how risk factors identified in study one apply to them.
Finally, the fourth study would involve reviewing the file data for Australian driving offenders. We would review which risk factors were present (or more strongly present) in recidivist offenders, compared to those who did not reoffend.