Explaining San Diego’s Decline in Illegal Street‐Racing Casualties

Abstract

Illegal street racing has become a pressing problem for cities and counties throughout the United States. In response to the problem, San Diego was the first city to pass a spectator ordinance, making attendance at an illegal street race an arrestable offense. Shortly after the spectator ordinance went into effect, a forfeiture ordinance was passed. This provides for forfeiture of vehicles used in illegal speed contests. A recent drop in illegal street‐racing casualties has been attributed to both ordinances, but other explanations are plausible, including an increase in media attention to the problem, a highly publicized prosecution for murder stemming from two illegal street racing fatalities, an increase in the number of sanctioned racing events, and enforcement of certain provisions in California’s Vehicle Code. Even in the face of these possible alternative explanations, several regression analyses revealed that the forfeiture ordinance had the most pronounced effect on street‐racing casualties.