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Criminal Justice Policy Review
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Legislating Self-Risking Behaviors

Motorcycle Helmet Laws and the Symbolic Defense of Individual Freedoms

T. William Greene

University of Nebraska-Lincoln, tgreene{at}unlserve.unl.edu

Helmet laws are suggestive of a societal trend toward the increased formal control of risky behaviors. Applying Tittle's integrated model, this case study sees the intersection of federal cost recovery interests, social solidarity concerns, and views of motorcyclists as "social dynamite" as setting the stage for motorcycle safety issues to become constructed as social problems. A governmental bureaucracy has led numerous helmet law campaigns. Financial burden and public safety arguments are used to justify helmet restrictions. A countermovement argues that helmet laws could lead to a slippery slope of declining freedoms. Implications of the debates between opposing positions are raised.

Key Words: motorcycle helmet laws • formal social control • individual freedoms

Criminal Justice Policy Review, Vol. 18, No. 1, 95-110 (2007)
DOI: 10.1177/0887403406294591
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