Number of Sexual Offenses Increase on British Railways

Waterloo Station, London, England.

There has been a 17 percent rise in crime on British railways, including a rise in the number of violent and sexual offences.

The British Transport Police (BTP) recorded 61,159 incidents in England, Scotland and Wales during the 2017-2018 calendar year, up from 52,235. Sexual offenses, in particular, have risen by 16 percent to 2,472 incidents.

A previous report from July 2017 notes how sexual offenses on trains had more than doubled over the past five years, and the current statistics show a continuation of this trend.

The level of other crimes including cable theft, robbery, and arson have also risen.

On the rising trend, Chief Constable of the BTP, Paul Crowther, commented that despite the rise in crime, “The chances of becoming a victim…remains low,” though “after a long period of steady decreases [from 2005-2014], both crimes per million passenger journeys and notifiable offences have increased.”

Feminist activists and activists for sexual assault survivors believe that the increase in reporting of instances of sexual misconduct is a result of heightened awareness surrounding issues of sexual violence. The End Violence Against Women Coalition argues that the rise in women reporting sexual violence is partly due to the #MeToo movement, which has encouraged women around the world to speak out about sexual harassment.

Rachel Krys, co-director of the End Violence Against Women Coalition, noted the influence of such social justice movements. "There has been a huge increase in the number of women reporting sexual violence in the last year, partly as a consequence of #MeToo and because we have seen initiatives to encourage reporting over the last few years,” stated Krys.

In order to “encourage women to report sexual violence, we also need to make sure they can have confidence their report will be taken seriously, and that everything will be done to ensure their report results in action," Krys added.

The BTP also noted that the rise in reporting may be due to improvements in the way it records crime statistics, claiming that these factors have given witnesses and victims “more confidence to report crime.” Such factors include the increase in the number of passenger journeys and the popularity of its confidential text service.

While increased reporting is positive, it brings to question past instances that may have been left unrecorded because of a lack of reporting outlets. In light of this, Paul Plummer, chief executive of the railway industry body, the Rail Delivery Group, mentioned that “the nature of some crimes is changing and as part of our long-term plan to change and improve we are investing in new technology and innovations to make our railway even safer for our staff and customers.”