Policing the roads: traffic cops, 'boy racers' and anti-social behaviour Karen Lumsden 2134/11667 https://repository.lboro.ac.uk/articles/journal_contribution/Policing_the_roads_traffic_cops_boy_racers_and_anti-social_behaviour/9472697 This article explores the policing and regulation of young motorists known in the United Kingdom as ‘boy racers’. It demonstrates how police officers' definitional decisions in relation to driving behaviours were influenced by a range of exogenous and endogenous factors, which subsequently shaped the landscape of enforcement and interactions with the community and drivers. A shift over time in the nature of the problem due to urban regeneration, innovations in the technology of the motor car and the availability of anti-social behaviour legislation impacted upon the policing of urban space. The strategies employed in order to police the culture and the related urban space were reminiscent of a deeper policing tradition wherein managing incivilities and local problems is part of the community policing perspective. Data is presented from semi-structured interviews with police, residents and ‘boy racers’, and ethnographic fieldwork with the drivers in the city of Aberdeen, Scotland. 2013-02-07 09:30:05 Anti-social behaviour Boy racers Community policing Traffic policing Language, Communication and Culture not elsewhere classified Studies in Human Society not elsewhere classified