Western Criminology Review 5(3), 25-42 (2004) Crime on Public Transport: ‘Static ’ and ‘Non-Static ’ (Moving) Crime Events

This paper presents a theoretical discussion conceptualising some of the problems evident in analysing patterns of crime and disorder on public transport, and the environments within which such crimes occur. The public transport system is a multifaceted arena, with a complex interaction of settings (buses, trains and trams), facilities (stops, stations and interchanges) and users (staff and passengers). The design of these facilities, and the internal (inside a vehicle) and external (that a vehicle traverses) environments may all influence the level of crime experienced on the system. Thus, examining the manifestation of crime on public transport systems becomes a highly complex process. Current methods of crime analysis focus on ‘static ’ crime events with a precise location (x,y co-ordinate). However on public transport crime may occur on a moving vehicle (non-static), and it is difficult to define a single location for this. For the purposes of analysis, it is contended that non-static crimes have a location, between two points and two times, represented as a single snapshot of time. Thus, in addition to analysing static crime events (points and areas), attention should also be focussed on how to analyse non-static (linear) crime events. Two possible techniques for such analysis are presented, alongside a discussion of the difficulties in collecting accurate and consistent data on crime on public transport. It is anticipated that an increase in the availability of such data will enable future empirical testing of the ideas presented