Boy Racers and Influencing
their Behaviour
Dr Karen Lumsden
Department of Social Sciences
Email: 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)
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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
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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, workingclass 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/socialscience
s/staff/lumsden-karen.html
• Or email me directly: K.Lumsden@lboro.ac.uk