The “Homogamy” of Road Rage: Understanding the Relationship Between Victimization and Offending Among Aggressive and Violent Motorists

Abstract

The issue of “road rage” has received increasing media and scholarly attention in recent years. Using a representative sample of 2610 adults from Ontario, involvement with road rage was surveyed across demographic subgroups. Incidents of road rage were divided into two categories, verbal-gesturing road rage and physical-threats road rage. Drawing upon violence and criminological literature, experiences of road rage victimization and offending were explored, as well as the extent to which individuals were simultaneously the victims and perpetrators of road rage. Results challenge findings from the violence literature that males and young adults have the greatest propensity for violent victimization. Road rage offending was predominantly a male activity, while there were no gender differences in victimization. Moreover, road rage was not isolated among young adults; rather, road rage was prominent across all ages, with the exception of seniors. Consistent with the existing literature, road rage was higher in urban settings.