Citation

Moore S. Crime Prev. Community Safety 2010; 12(3): 176-193.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2010, Holtzbrinck Springer Nature Publishing Group -- Palgrave-Macmillan)

DOI

10.1057/cpcs.2010.9

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

This article explores the current policies used to limit anti-social behaviour on public transport and suggests they are based on the mistaken notion that anti-social behaviour and crime compose a single problem that can be tackled with one, unified policy response. It is argued instead that issues of 'anti-social behaviour' and 'crime' need to be disaggregated and then responded to as separate and largely distinct social problems. The article begins by providing evidence of the social importance of public transport as a major 'place' of social interaction and points out the impact of perceptions of anti-social behaviour and crime has on bus travel. The article points out that anti-social behaviour on public transport has received relatively little attention from criminologists and, partially as a result of this lack of interest, policy initiatives have been restricted to a narrow range of largely punitive approaches that see anti-social behaviour and crime as intertwined phenomena. Specifically, anti-social behaviour is seen as a precursor to more serious crime and as such anti-social behaviour is treated in much the same way as criminal behaviour. The author suggests that bus travellers engage in a complex process of defining anti-social behaviour and distinguishing it from crime. The significance of this is that it is anti-social behaviour not crime that dissuades people from using public transport. This suggests that if greater emphasis were placed on how the travelling public define and respond to anti-social behaviour, as opposed to crime, distinctive policies in response to the specific behaviours could be developed. The article makes use of unpublished research commissioned by Transport for London (TfL) to advocate an approach to anti-social behaviour on public transport based on the promotion of the values of reciprocity, respect and tolerance and by seeking to place a 'space' between crime and low level anti-social behaviour. The article concludes with a brief discussion of the Considerate Traveller Campaign adopted by TfL, which is designed to promote respect and tolerance and suggests that the evaluation of the campaign provides some degree of support for this approach. Finally, it is suggested that this approach need not be restricted to public transport, but has wider potential.

Keywords: anti-social behaviour; incivility; disorder; public transport; reciprocity; tolerance

Language: en