Unlicensed drivers are prone to risky behaviour

Of course, the propensity to engage in risky behaviour may be a major reason that these drivers don't have licenses. As reported by Dave Cooper in the Edmonton Journal on April 18, 2011:

Drivers who get behind the wheel without a valid licence are more likely to take chances, traffic safety expert Barry Watson says.

They're also involved in about 10 per cent of all fatal crashes in Australia and 20 per cent in the U.S., and are also four times more likely to be involved in a fatal crash compared to licensed drivers...

...His study of accident files between 2003 and 2008, plus interviews with hundreds of drivers charged with illegal driving, paints a picture of drivers "outside the system" who are banned from driving yet continue to do so because they can get away with it...

...Driving to traffic court with a suspended licence suggests to Watson that "punishment avoidance" -or not being caught -was the strongest predictor of continued illegal driving. He said one-third continued to drive unlicensed and undetected before their court date.

"They would say I have been driving for 10 years and have been caught once, so I'll just keep doing it."