Hoon

Abstract: This paper hitches a ride with young car enthusiasts to explore how their vehicles catalyse a unique form of vernacular creativity, in a seemingly imperilled industrial city setting. While television and print media regularly demonise young drivers for street racing and ‘hoon’ behaviour, this paper purposely adopts a different perspective, on circuits of production and qualitative aspects of the urban custom-car design scene that constitute forms of vernacular creativity. Beyond moral panics little is known about movements, networks, and linkages between custom cars, young enthusiasts, and urban spaces from which their activities emerge. Utilising responsive, in-depth ethnographic methods in Wollongong, Australia, this paper interprets custom-car design as vernacular creativity, valued by young people and located across unassuming and unheralded urban spaces. The possibility that custom-car designers possess skills that are assets for ‘blue-collar’ industrial cities is contrasted against a backdrop of wid...

Abstract: Street racing can take the form of spontaneous one-to-one racing or highly organised events, while "hooning" generally refers to activities such as burnouts or excessive acceleration. Recent media reports have highlighted the potential for fatalities or injuries and the public nuisance caused by these behaviours. Subsequently, formal "anti-hooning"legislation has been passed in four Australian states and New Zealand. In the last two years since the introduction of Queensland’s 'anti-hoon' legislation, over 1500 vehicles have been impounded and over 4100 disturbance complaints registered. Official Queensland police reports have registered 169 ‘hooning’ or racing crashes involving 12-24 year olds in the period 1999-2004. Current research suggests those involved are typically young males aged between 16 and 25. The current investigation used a combination of focus groups, e-mail responses and message board feedback to conduct an examination of the experiences and perceptions of young people in regards to ‘hooning’ behaviour and legislative reforms. It is proposed that the results can be used to inform existing legislation and the assist in the development of interventions from both a youth and Queensland Police Service perspective.

Abstract: This article describes a longitudinal case study of Hoon (a pseudonym), an adolescent multilingual writer, with respect to his negotiation of multiple identities and access to academic writing practices. Through an inductive analysis of multiple data sources (interviews, observations, literacy artifacts, and field notes), the researcher observed that while negotiating a stigmatized ESL-student identity and an academic achiever identity, Hoon developed some survival strategies through school. Notably, those strategies acted as a double-edged sword in that they helped Hoon earn high grades but prevented him from engaging in extensive academic literacy activities. Findings from this study provide a more in-depth understanding of the nuanced experiences, challenges, and characteristics of adolescent multilingual writers and suggest a need for further examination of social contexts in which students construct positive identities, access various writing practices, and grasp the value of writing (wheth...

Abstract: The Queensland Police Service (QPS) has developed a range of strategies and enforcement programs to target individuals and groups who persist in driving vehicles in a manner that creates unnecessary risk to other road users. This group, typically referred to as ‘hoons’, tend to perform organised illegal street racing activities in vehicles that are often defective and unroadworthy. This paper will provide an overview of the provisions of Queensland’s Anti-Hoon Legislation introduced in November 2002, and a statistical summary of the extent and severity of the hooning problem in Queensland. The effectiveness of the Traffic Response Group (TRG) or ‘hoon squad’ in targeting anti-social driving behaviour will also be outlined. Furthermore, an overview of the objectives and outcomes of ‘Operation DRAG’ and other similar problem-oriented policing methods used to prevent street racing in Queensland will be presented. The QPS is in a unique position with the ability to record and monitor ‘hooning’ complaints made by members of the community on the Traffic Returns Analysis and Complaints System (TRACS). The effectiveness of TRACS in monitoring anti-social driving behaviour, otherwise known as ‘hooning’ will be outlined. This will enable delegates to examine the suitability of Queensland’s response to hoon-related driving behaviour for application in their own jurisdiction.