Do Routine Activities among College Students Affect Their Sex Crime Victimization in subway?

An Examination of Subway Sex Offense Modus Operandi: A Case of Seoul, South Korea

“…The findings showed that there were a few notable differences in the situational contexts in which the two offenses were committed, demonstrating that classifying the subway crimes into one category [4,9,24,31,37,38] is not a reasonable approach. The authors also confirmed that both the harassers and the voyeurs made their decisions rationally at each phase of the crime-commission process, exhibited by the efforts invested to maximize success and minimize failure.…”

“…To illustrate, modifying the physical environments (i.e. Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design or CPTED) [40] and reducing criminal opportunities by increasing police presence and awareness on the issue of victim blaming have been suggested as ways to prevent and reduce the impact of sex crimes [4,31,41]. Taking a similar approach by calling for increased visibility and improved surveillance of the spaces in the subway stations, Roh and Kim [42] have suggested multi-agency partnerships for effective control of the subway crimes.…”

“…However, subway crimes have also evolved and accompanied such advancement. In the case of Seoul, South Korea, the Seoul Metro which is one of the world's largest railway networks with a total of nine lines and 293 stations carries more than seven million citizens each day, offering numerous criminal opportunities for sex offenders [4,5]. Common types of subway crimes in South Korea include larceny-theft, assault, and sex offense, of which sex crimes constitute more than 40% of the offenses committed in Seoul [6].…”