Rules of the Road: The Automobile and the Transformation of American Criminal Justice

**A thorough and engaging look at an unexpected driver of changes in the American criminal justice system** Driving is an unavoidable part of life in the United States. Even those who don't drive much likely know someone who does. More than just a simple method of getting from point A to point B, however, driving has been a significant influence on the United States' culture, economy, politics – and its criminal justice system. __Rules of the Road__ tracks the history of the car alongside the history of crime and criminal justice in the United States, demonstrating how the quick and numerous developments in criminal law corresponded to the steadily rising prominence, and now established supremacy, of the automobile. Spencer Headworth brings together research from sociology, psychology, criminology, political science, legal studies, and histories of technology and law in illustrating legal responses to changing technological and social circumstances. __Rules of the Road__ opens by exploring the early 20th-century beginnings of the relationship between criminal law and automobility, before moving to the direct impact of the automobile on prosecutorial and criminal justice practices in the latter half of the 20th century. Finally, Headworth looks to recent debates and issues in modern-day criminal justice to consider what this might presage for the future. Using a seemingly mundane aspect of daily life as its investigative lens, this creative, imaginative, and thoroughly researched book provides a fresh perspective on the transformations of the U.S. criminal justice system. Contents Introduction 1. Revolutions per Minute 2. Calling All Cars 3. Fifths and the Fourth 4. The Automotive Age of Majority 5. City Planning, Suburbanization, and Vehicle Patrol 6. Discretion and Disparities in Car-Based Criminal Justice 7. Interstate Crime 8. MADD Prosecutors? 9. Roadblocks 10. Civil Asset Forfeiture and the Limits of the Criminal Law 11. Watching the Wheels 12. Monitoring Mobility Conclusion: Objects in Mirror Are Closer than They Appear Acknowledgments Notes References Index