For a number of years, the authors have been responsible for collating data on assaults occurring on local buses for the Department of Transport. In this paper, they outline the nature of assaults against bus staff and passengers over the last ten years using data from a major survey of operators and police forces. Assaults are assessed in terms of their causes, severity, the time of day and location of incidents and characteristics of both victims and assailants. Evidence suggests that incidents are clustered at particular times of day. The conclusions suggest that the assault rate is low and that, contrary to popular perceptions that most incidents occur at night, most occur during the day particularly at school leaving times. Victims tend to be young men rather than more vulnerable members of society.
Samenvatting