Abstract
The behavioural and legal aspects of the problematic and repetitive criminal behaviour of aggravated vehicle taking or “joyriding” are reviewed as context for a study in Great Britain of data from 20 males imprisoned for joy-riding and/or vehicle theft for gain, 10 habitual joyriders who were members of a youth club established to counter the problem, 10 imprisoned house-breakers, and 10 males with no criminal convictions. No specific ethnographic, motivational, or personality differences between joy-riders and those involved in other crimes of theft were found, although there was evidence for the notion of joyriding developing into car theft for pure financial gain.