Criminals on the road? An exploratory study of those convicted of causing death by dangerous driving in Taipei City, Taiwan, 2014−2018

Empirical research conducted in the USA, UK, Australia, New Zealand and parts of Europe has accumulated over the last 50 years and has identified links between mainstream crime (e.g. violence and acquisitive crime) and driving offences (e.g. dangerous driving, drink driving, driving while disqualified). Put simply, international evidence reveals that a driver's willingness to commit driving offences tends to be associated with a willingness to commit other types of offence. Unlike the Anglophone countries and Europe, no peer-reviewed published research in Greater China has considered this matter empirically. Our article uses data from a data set (n = 368) of those convicted of causing death by dangerous driving over a 4-year period (2014 − 2018) in Taipei City, capital of Taiwan, to examine associations with prior criminal history and criminal versatility in this sample of convicted drivers. Our analysis indicates the following results: the Taiwanese sample of serious driving offenders had a somewhat low prevalence of prior conviction – over 70% had no prior conviction record. None of the measures used provides evidence for any significant ‘versatility’ on the part of drivers convicted of serious driving offences. Further studies in Taiwan scrutinizing patterns in driving and mainstream criminal offences are needed, as are more nuanced analyses of the versatility of offending. Our article makes recommendations for further research in Taiwan.