The Cars and Crime Symposium
The Cars and Crime Symposium was sponsored by the Centre for Criminal Justice Studies at the University of Leeds, and held on the 31 July 2025 in a community café in Ilkley.
As the first of its kind, this symposium brought together leading criminologists, legal scholars, geographers and road safety experts to discuss how vehicles, drivers, and crime intersect in shaping public safety.
The event began with Professor Sally Kyd (University of Leicester) making a compelling case for elevating roads policing within the criminal justice agenda, arguing that motor vehicle harm deserves the same policy attention as knife crime. She proposed a Proactive Policing Index to better measure and allocate policing resources.
Dr Leanne Savigar-Shaw (University of Staffordshire) examined why speeding is still not widely perceived as “real” crime, exploring how community-led initiatives like Community Speed Watch can shape perceptions and enforcement.
Professor Ian Loader (University of Oxford) challenged the “motonormative” focus on punishing individual drivers, calling instead for a shift toward environmental regulation of road safety, with licensing controls at its core.
Professor Henry Yeomans shared pilot study findings on the generational decline of drink-driving, highlighting how changing social norms - not law reform - have driven the steep reduction in alcohol-related road incidents over recent decades.
Dr Ciara Molloy (University of Sheffield) followed with a historical look at joyriding in 1980s Ireland, linking moral panic, media coverage, and the opening of Fort Mitchel prison – the so-called “Alcatraz of Cork Harbour” – to lessons about victim-centred policy making.
After a coffee break, a second block of presentations opened with Professor Jason Roach (Huddersfield University), whose Self-Selection Policing approach shows how minor traffic offences can flag serious criminal activity. From unlicensed drivers to illegal parking in disabled bays, his work underscores how traffic stops can be an intelligence goldmine – potentially enhanced with AI tools.
Dr Helen Wells (Keele University) brought a frontline focus, drawing on decades of research to give practical insights for roads policing officers and introducing the Roads Policing Academic Network.
Professor Jose Pina-Sánchez presented evidence derived from the longitudinal study Understanding Society showing a causal link between heavy motor traffic on street crime rates over time, possibly through social disorganisation.
At this point, as the weather forecast had improved, the participants decided to carry on the symposium on the Ilkley moors. Near the Cow and Calf (recently voted as Yorkshire’s most scenic view), Dr Thiago Oliveira (University of Manchester) presented preliminary findings on how fear of crime reduces walking frequency, with traffic presence also raising perceived danger.
Lastly, Dr Charles Lanfear (University of Cambridge) closed by pointing out the surprising lack of criminological research into dangerous driving, despite its fatal toll exceeding that of firearms in the US.
Other participants included Dr Caroline Tait, Dr Yuanxuan Yang, Mr Jan Fonseca Zamora, Dr Roger Beecham, and Professor Robin Lovelace from the School of Geography and the Institute of Transport Studies at the University of Leeds.
The symposium balanced rigorous debate with informal networking over coffee, lunch, and an evening hike. Discussions revealed that “cars and crime” is not a niche topic but a vital lens for understanding safety, urban life, and justice. By the day’s end, participants left not only with richer knowledge but also with fresh ideas for research collaborations.
Besides those ad-hoc collaborations, the symposium will give rise to a special issue to be submitted to a diamond open access criminology journal, and to a follow up symposium to be held either on 2026 or 2027 at the University of Maynooth in Ireland.
Professor Pina-Sánchez is a member of the School of Law’s Centre for Criminal Justice Studies and can also be found on Bluesky @jpinasanchez.bsky.social.
