Car Stereos and the Criminal Sanction: The Dangers of Too Much Social Control

Noise pollution is an ongoing problem in American cities, and car stereos are a major reason why large numbers of people are unhappy. Citizens are demanding regulation of “boom cars” and the typical policy response is to use the criminal sanction. The behavior is annoying, but hardly morally opprobrious. Despite the best intentions of those who propose such laws, they are potentially a bigger danger to civil liberties than the behavior that they purport to regulate. The enforcement of such laws does little to curb the behavior in question, but may function as a content-based regulation of certain types of music, provides opportunities for racial profiling, and may harm the legitimacy of the government thus reducing its ability to use its police power in areas which are more appropriate for the use of that power.