A Study of Bus Route Crime Risk in Urban Areas: The Changing Environs of a Bus Journey

Abstract

This study attempts to examine the risk of bus route crime and how it is influenced by environmental characteristics along the bus corridor. These include changing levels of crime risk, socio-economic influences, and changes to the physical infrastructure including land use. Three urban case study areas in the UK are used. The findings suggest that the risk of bus crime along a journey is influenced by overall levels of crime (for specific categories of crime only), that the level of risk increases in high crime areas, and that risk is raised further when there are more stops along that route Prevention implications of these findings are discussed, and avenues for future research are presented.

Crime on Public Transport

“…Examples include the following: criminal damage at a stop or station at an unknown time, graffiti or the slashing of a seat on a vehicle at both an unknown time and location as it may only be reported when a bus or train returns to the depot at the end of the day, and pocket picking that occurs as part of a passengers journey, somewhere between departure and arrival. In addition it is very difficult to pinpoint the location of a crime that occurs on a moving vehicle, although there are studies that attempt to analyze dynamic crime events (Newton, 2005), for example the development of "hot routes" or "hot lines" (Newton, 2008;Thompson et al, 2009). …”

“…There is empirical evidence that crime is concentrated at a small proportion of transport stations, stops, and hubs (Smith and Clarke 2000;Loukaitou-Sideris et al, 2002;Newton, 2004;Smith and Cornish, 2006;and Newton and Bowers, 2007) and "en route" at particular sections of public transport journeys (Newton, 2008;Tompson et al, 2009). These concentrations vary by both crime type and time of day, as will be discussed in more detail below.…”

“…Moreover, Newton (2008) identified that not only is bus-related crime positively correlated with levels of crime in the areas a bus traverses, and that the risk of crime on those routes that traverse high-crime areas is greater than on other routes, but furthermore that the risk propensity is heightened on routes that go through high-crime areas and have a higher numbers of stops within these areas (multiple entry and exit points). It should be noted that this risk is not just confined to the passengers and staff who travel on public transport but also to the actual infrastructure of the public transport network.…”

Exploring the conditional effects of bus stops on crime

“…They conducted extensive research at three locations to identify the factors that appeared to drive crime at each, which included drug trade at one, crowding at another, and proximity to a high school in the third case. Newton (2008) focused on three bus routes in England, noting that crime was higher at bus stops in high crime areas. Similarly, LoukaitouSideris & examined factors influencing crime at 10 bus stop crime "hot spots" in Los Angeles (see also Loukaitou-Sideris, 1999).…”

“…To date, only three larger N studies (Kooi, 2007;Weisburd et al, 2012;Yu, 2009) have been undertaken and all of these find that bus stops are associated with higher crime. Prior large N studies have generally examined only direct bus stop-crime relationships, yet, many of the small N studies suggest that crime is higher at some bus stops than others, often based on characteristics of the areas surrounding bus stops (Levine et al, 1986;LoukaitouSideris, 1999;Newton, 2008). Other studies have found that rapid transit and crime are associated only under certain conditions.…”