The recent fatal bus rape in India has opened many people’s eyes to the problem of sexual assault on public transit. This article delves into the problem of sexual assault on public transit in the U.S. and other countries. Contrary to what one may think, it appears that such assault is all too common, illustrating this is a problem that must be immediately addressed.
The article noted above discusses several examples of sexual assaults on public transit. The most alarming aspect of these examples is that no bystanders intervened to stop the assaults. This phenomenon has a variety of potential explanations: people on public transit keep themselves occupied with books/iPods/phones and may not notice surrounding behaviors, people are timid, people may be unsure of what is occurring and don’t feel it is their place to intervene, or the bystander effect may be at work. Regardless of the driving force behind people not intervening, we must incentivize them to do so.
Leveraging regular citizens appears to be the most feasible strategy for combating sexual assault on public transit. Other options are likely too expensive for cities to realistically pursue or simply won’t be effective. For example, placing cameras in buses and subways may seem like a viable approach. However, doing so would be extremely costly and the cameras may not increase detection because of difficult angles and victims not reporting assaults. Another strategy would be to place undercover officers randomly in public transit - this would allow police to intervene to stop attacks and raise the threat of detection, thereby helping to deter potential offenders. But, this would also be a very costly endeavor, especially for cities with already understaffed police departments.
Unlike cameras and undercover officers, incentivizing citizens to intervene to stop an assault could be done relatively inexpensively. Cities could offer rewards to citizens or groups of citizens that intervene to stop an assault (this could mean calling 911, telling the transit operators, or directly intervening) where such intervention leads to an arrest or police report. Such rewards would need to be widely advertised to ensure citizens are aware of them and to help send the message that our society will not tolerate these assaults. In addition, cities could run campaigns that encourage people to say something when they see an assault occurring. More intervention on the part of regular citizens would increase the risks of committing assault as offenders would more likely be caught, which would help deter such individuals.
Of course, there are many drawbacks to regular people intervening to stop violent attacks - the violence may escalate and more innocent people could be hurt. However, cities could emphasize citizens quickly notifying authorities rather than directly intervening when a more violent assault is occurring, such as rape. When an individual is being grabbed or harassed, the potential for a violent altercation following a bystander intervening seems slim. Another issue with this approach would be getting victims to file police reports, which would be necessary for distributing rewards and ensuring an incident actually occurred. But, this may not be a major issue as victims may be more willing to file reports out of gratitude to bystanders.
No one should have to fear using public transit - maybe regular citizens are the key to putting an end to such fear.