Using Open Data to Study Sexual Assaults on Public Transportation

• In Event: Crime and Place: Open Data and Open Science in Studying Crime and Place

Abstract

In the past few years, tackling Taxi and Private Hire Vehicle (TPHV) related sexual offences have become a priority for transit safety in the United Kingdom. In London, in 2015 there were 28 reported cases of rape, and 108 other sexual assault. These numbers have been constant in the past few years. It can be a challenge to target these offences with problem-solving approaches, due to the lack of concrete spatial information. Victims are often drunk, and cannot remember where they got into the cab, or where the suspect took them. What we do know, is that offenders become aware of potential victims during regular, non-criminal activities. Therefore pickup locations of victims correspond to general passenger pickup location hotspots. To identify these, practitioners rely on proxy measures such as land use data related to the night time economy, or end of route stations of rapid transit (eg: underground). This paper evaluates the effectiveness of these various indicators against publicly available taxi trip data for New York City. The aim of this paper is to identify the best indicators for estimating pickup hotspots in the absence of such data. Results can improve current tasking of police and community safety resources to target shifting hotspots, and reduce the prevalence of TPHV related sexual offences.

Author

• Reka Solymosi, University of Manchester