EXAMINING THE LAW ENFORCEMENT RESPONSE TO COMPLAINTS OF SEXUAL ASSAULT ON A PUBLIC TRANSIT SYSTEM by Justin Biggs Bachelor of Arts, University of Otago, 2006 MAJOR PAPER SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF MASTER OF ARTS (CRIMINAL JUSTICE) In the School of Criminology and Criminal Justice © Justin Biggs, 2018 UNIVERSITY OF THE FRASER VALLEY Spring Year All rights reserved. This work may not be reproduced in whole or in part, by photocopy or other means, without permission of the author. Approval Name: Justin Biggs Degree: Master of Arts (Criminal Justice) Degree Title: EXAMINING THE LAW ENFORCEMENT RESPONSE TO COMPLAINTS OF SEXUAL ASSAULT ON A PUBLIC TRANSIT SYSTEM Examining Committee Dr. Amanda McCormick GPC Chair Director, School of Criminology and Criminal Justice ____________________________________________________________ Yvon Dandurand, Senior Supervisor Associate Professor, School of Criminology and Criminal Justice ____________________________________________________________ Dr. Neil Dubord External Examiner Chief Delta Police ____________________________________________________________ Date Defended/Approved: April 18, 2018 ii Abstract Women’s safety on public transit systems is an important issue as women around the world typically make up a majority of a public transit system’s ridership, and women are more likely than men to depend on transit for their mobility. Fear while on public transit affects people from many walks of life, and factors that cause fear for many women on transit are poor lighting conditions, desolate stations, and a lack of presence by transit staff or police. The nature of a crowded transit environment also put women at risk of sexual assault. Such assaults are not always reported to the proper authorities. Some transit authorities have conducted public awareness campaigns about sexual harassment on transit while encouraging reporting. This paper examines the Metro Vancouver Transit Police’s response to reports of sexual assault by reviewing the 411 reported sexual assaults from 2013 through 2017. Key findings were that reported incidents reflected peak rush hour travel times, a suspect or person of interest was identified in over half of reported incidents, which coincided with a high rate of sexual assault reports to Crown Counsel. iii Acknowledgements I would like to thank Doug LePard, the Chief Officer for the Metro Vancouver Transit Police who made this endeavour possible, also for his support throughout this program and with this research paper. I want to thank many police officers and civilian staff for their sharing their encouragement, and insight on a range of topics. I also want to thank PhD candidates Josh Murphy and Rylan Simpson, and MA candidate Allison Campbell for always being available to answer my questions. Finally, I would like to thank the Criminology staff and faculty, notably Yvon Dandurand, Amanda McCormick, and Len Garis who all challenged and inspired me during this journey. iv Dedication I would like to dedicate this project to my wife Jenny who showed the patience and understanding of a saint while I spent many weekends inside studying. I could not have done this without you. v Table of Contents Abstract ............................................................................................................................................ iii Acknowledgements........................................................................................................................... iv List of tables .................................................................................................................................... vii List of figures .................................................................................................................................. viii Glossary of Acronyms........................................................................................................................ ix Introduction ......................................................................................................................................1 The Issue at Hand...........................................................................................................................2 Theoretical Background .....................................................................................................................3 A Whole Journey Approach to Transit Crime ...................................................................................5 Fear and Safety on Transit ..............................................................................................................9 Women on Transit ........................................................................................................................... 12 Sexual Offending on Transit ......................................................................................................... 16 Reporting Sexual Offences ........................................................................................................... 21 The Response of Metro Vancouver Transit Police to Sexual Offences ............................................. 25 Methodology ................................................................................................................................... 27 Data and Analysis ........................................................................................................................ 29 Findings ........................................................................................................................................... 44 Incidents ...................................................................................................................................... 44 The MVTP Response..................................................................................................................... 46 Discussion........................................................................................................................................ 49 Issue 1 ................................................................................................................................................ 49 Issue 2 ................................................................................................................................................ 53 Conclusion ....................................................................................................................................... 57 References....................................................................................................................................... 59 vi List of tables Table 1. MVTP SEXUAL ASSALT FILES, 2013-2017 ..................................................................................... 29 Table 2. FOUNDED SEXUAL ASSAULT BY YEAR, 2013-2017 ...................................................................... 30 Table 3. VICTIM AND OFFENDER ETHNICITY ............................................................................................. 37 Table 4 METHODS FOR REPORTING SEXUAL ASSAULTS ........................................................................... 40 Table 5. TOTAL SUSPECTS IDENTIFIED EACH YEAR.................................................................................... 41 Table 6 YEARLY REPORTS APPROVED BY CROWN COUNSEL .................................................................... 43 Table 7 YEARLY CONVICTION RATE ........................................................................................................... 43 vii List of figures Figure 1. SEXUAL ASSAULTS BY MONTH ................................................................................................... 30 Figure 2 MONTHLY SEXUAL ASSAULTS BY YEAR ....................................................................................... 31 Figure 3. SEXUAL ASSAULTS BY DAY OF THE WEEK .................................................................................. 31 Figure 4 YEARLY SEXUAL ASSAULTS BY DAY OF THE WEEK ...................................................................... 32 Figure 5. TIME OF OFFENCE........................................................................................................................ 32 Figure 6 TIME OF OFFENCE BY YEAR .......................................................................................................... 33 Figure 7 2011 TRANSLINK WEEKDAY RIDERSHIP BY HOUR OF THE DAY .................................................. 33 Figure 8 2011 TRANSLINK RIDERSHIP TRIP PURPOSE ............................................................................... 34 Figure 9 VICTIMS AGE................................................................................................................................. 38 Figure 10. TRANSIT LOCATIONS WHERE SEXUAL ASSAULTS OCCURRED ................................................ 39 Figure 11 HOURS BETWEEN INCIDENT AND REPORT TO THE MVTP ........................................................ 41 Figure 12 SUSPECTS RECOMMENDED TO CROWN FOR SEXUAL ASSAULT CHARGE ................................ 42 Figure 13 YEARLY SEXUAL ASSAULTS CLEARED BY CHARGE ...................... Error! Bookmark not defined.2 viii Glossary of Acronyms i. Canada Line Attendant (CLA) ii. SkyTrain Attendant (STA) iii. Metro Vancouver Transit Police (MVTP) iv. Computer Aided Dispatch (CAD) v. Uniform Crime Reporting Code (UCR) vi. Police Records Information Management Environment (PRIME) vii. Law Enforcement Records Management System (RMS) viii. British Columbia (BC) ix. University of British Columbia (UBC) ix Introduction TransLink is the operating company for the public transportation system for the Greater Vancouver area, in British Columbia, Canada. Their mass transit system covers over 1,800 square kilometres, which includes 218 bus routes, 59 SkyTrain Stations, a SeaBus system, a HandyDart for people with disabilities, and a West Coast Express heavy rail system operating across eight stations (TransLink, 2017). TransLink ridership has grown substantially over the last 15 years from 230 million boardings in 2000 to over 400 million boardings in 2017. TransLink’s strategic goal is to continue to expand their service network and they have acknowledged that they must provide a safe and secure system to grow (TransLink, 2016). Growing a transit system depends on how attractive the system is to consumers and includes factors such as price, accessibility, comfort, and fear of crime (Mawby, 2017). Researchers have identified gender, age, income, and disability as factors related to individual fear of victimisation (Ceccato & Newton, 2015). Further research shows that women around the globe are more likely to use public transit than men (Ceccato, 2014) and are typically more fearful than men while on public transportation (Loukaitou-Sideris, 2015). A perceived vulnerability is another factor related to fear of crime on mass transit and factors to address perceived safety are notably different between men and women (Yavuz & Welch, 2010). Yavuz and Welch (2010) concluded that women’s perceived vulnerability increased in the presence of social incivilities and in the absence of someone able to deter crime. In contrast, men felt vulnerable surrounded by unfamiliar people or when they felt like they were not in control over their environment. 1 Surveys of women transit users and representatives of women’s Rights groups indicate that women believe themselves to be more vulnerable than men to crime in public. Many surveyed women agreed that their vulnerability is related to women not being as strong as men and being “preyed upon” by men. Other women identified that they are at a higher risk for sexual assault on transit as a reason for why women’s perceptions of safety on transit are different from men’s (Loukaitou-Sideris, 2015:300). The fear of being sexually harassed or sexually assaulted is real for many women, even though the likelihood of experiencing such incidents may be relatively low (Natarajan, Schmuhl, Sudula, & Mandala, 2017). Many Transit Authorities have recognised women’s concerns for their safety on public transit and have developed advertising campaigns about sexual harassment and sexual assault designed to provide information to and raise awareness among women, men, victims, and offenders (Gekoski, Grey, Horvath, Edwards, Emirali, & Adler, 2015). Such campaigns are an essential component to addressing women's safety on transit but so too is the police response when sexual assault victims attend police stations or call in to make a report. The Issue at Hand In 2013, The Metro Vancouver Transit Police (MVTP) identified the reduction of sexual offences as one of its operational priorities. This paper describes sexual assault incidents reported by victims and witnesses to the MVTP and the MVTP’s subsequent response as relevant to the topic of women’s safety on public transit. This paper will address two questions: 2 Are spatial-temporal patterns observed in sexual assault cases reported to the Metro Vancouver Transit Police? Were changes observed from 2013 to 2017 in the Metro Vancouver Transit Police’s ability to identify suspects, and to recommend sexual assault charges? As well as if changes were observed in and in Crown Counsel approving sexual assault reports from the Metro Vancouver Transit Police? Theoretical Background A public transportation system facilitates movement to work, school, family, and social activities. While a public transit system promotes mobility, there are also a variety of barriers to its use such as accessibility, availability, affordability, safety concerns, and individual factors such as age or disability (Sochor, 2015). Crimes that occur within public transportation systems vary from minor violations such as fare evasion to serious violent offences. Transit crime is often categorized as follows: a crime against the transit authority (fare evasion, mischief, graffiti); crimes against transit authority employees (assault and threats); and crimes against passengers (theft, robbery, assault, and sexual harassment) (Gentry, 2015). While Ceccato & Newton (2015b) argued that terrorist acts belong in their own category and not a transit crime category. Smith and Clarke (2000) identify the following crime categories which are typically present in transit settings, crimes against passengers such as theft, robbery and assault; crimes against employees; vandalism and graffiti; antisocial behaviour; and line of route crimes meaning theft of track metal or copper in trolley wire. Upon analysis, a public transportation system is a highly complex and multifaceted environment (Ceccato & Newton, 2015). Transit stations can be large and complex, spanning 3 multiple levels and with platforms that can be above, below, or on ground level. There may also be a variety of transit vehicles deployed in any given public transit environment. Stations can connect to shopping centres or link to other forms of transit. A transit setting can also be as simple as a bench and a signpost signifying a bus stop. Some criminologists have defined nodes, pathways, and edges in relation to public transportation systems. Nodes represent transit stations and stops, pathways are typically the routes along the transit journey, and edges represent blurred, individual boundaries between a transit environment and a new environment (Brantingham & Brantingham, 1993; Newton & Ceccato, 2015b, Yu & Smith, 2015, Sedelmaier, 2015, and Loukaitou-Sideris, 2015). Edges can be but are not limited to the pathways that passengers walk, cycle, or drive to reach a transit node. Crime on transit appears to be a highly situational experience as a transit environment is said to act as both a crime generator and crime attractor. A crime generator creates crime in a location and the surrounding vicinity while a crime attractor brings people to an area (Felson & Clarke, 1998). With large volumes of people converging to occupy the same time and space, Routine Activities Theory suggests that the convergence of people is a precursor for crime providing that three elements come together. Those three elements are a motivated and capable offender, an available victim, and the absence of a suitable guardian (Cohen & Felson, 1979). Routine Activities Theory defines a guardian as a person who by presence or behaviour can deter, interrupt, or intervene in the commission of an offence. The dynamic nature of a transit environment during rush hour means there are a constant flow of potential targets and offenders (Ceccato & Newton, 2015b). Further, the presence of a suitable target and absence of a capable guardian signify the most influential predictors of crime (Cohen & Felson, 1979). 4 Factors that determine a capable guardian are an ability or authority to intervene in any given situation. Intervention is often dependent on how familiar the guardian is with the environment (Hollis-Peel, Reynald, Van Bavel, Elffers, Welsh, 2011). In some cases, environmental design can increase guardianship in a transit node (Uittenbogaard, 2015). The TransLink transportation network is full of potential guardians with training and experience to intervene, from SkyTrain Attendants or Canada Line Attendants (STAs or CLAs) to, bus operators, transit supervisors, Transit Security and the Metro Vancouver Transit Police (MVTP). A study in the UK found police officers were the most cost-effective personnel resource for addressing people’s fear in public spaces when compared to other law enforcement or private security guard options (Rowland & Coupe, 2014). Further, passengers themselves may become informal guardians in some situations. Latane and Darley’s (1970) argued that bystander intervention depends on the bystander first noticing the event, identifying that intervention is needed, taking responsibility to intervene, deciding how to help, and finally intervening. However, bystanders in crowded transit environments often convey detachment and a lack of ownership of transit spaces to intervene (Ceccato & Newton, 2015) or not pay much attention to the other people around them or do not want to get involved in incidents (Qin & Liu, 2015). A Whole Journey Approach to Transit Crime Transit crime also covers a wide range of potential offences when a passenger is walking to, from, or between transport facilities. The risk of being a victim of a crime is not equal across environments or neighbourhoods as some parts of a city have higher crime rates than others. Research has shown that a station may be more vulnerable to crime if it is in a high-crime area with risky socio-economic and land use indicators (such as mixed land use, high-rise buildings, 5 or located close to premises selling alcohol or with a high concentration of young males) (Ceccato & Newton, 2015). Some scholars of transit environments argue that it is necessary for research and policy to take a ‘whole journey’ approach that is a door to door approach from the start of the journey to the end (Ceccato & Newton, 2015). The ‘whole journey’ approach argues that passengers need to feel safe not just at stops and stations but also during their entire journey, which includes their journey to a transit station (Ceccato & Newton, 2015). The spatial-temporal relationships that transit environments have with crime in general and specific types of crime should be expected to be different across neighbourhoods. Understanding the relationship between a transit node and the broader environment can help understand crime related to transit in an area. The term ‘malignant mixes’ is defined as land uses or activities that combine together to increase the risk of crime in a location (Adams, Herrmann, & Felson, 2015). Hart and Miethe (2015) identified malignant mixes among bus stops that were in proximity to specific combinations of risky facilities like bars, liquor stores, pawnshops, and cheque cashing stores that put passengers at higher risk of victimisation than a transit node and one facility on its own. One should also note that the opportunity for crime to occur is not the same across a mass transit system as each area has its unique characteristics that create opportunities for different crime (Tillyer, 2003). For example, parking facilities associated with transit hubs are said to act more as crime attractors due to the vast array of available targets, inadequate 6 surveillance, and a natural escape for offenders (Mayhew & Braun, 2004)1. Additionally, La Vigne (2015) found that technology solutions like cameras and dummy cameras, in conjunction with increased signage, had no impact on auto crime in parking lots in the Washington DC metro system. In recent years, cellphones have become a favourite item for thefts and robberies in the transit-related environment (Gentry, 2015). Many smartphone owners always carry their devices with them and have their phones on display while riding, waiting, or walking to and from transit stations, which visibly alerts offenders to crime opportunities (Gentry, 2015). Police officers have observed that cellphone use on transit is a significant distraction to passengers who are ‘zoned in' to their phones and ‘zoned out' from their surroundings and so can become a target for theft or robbery. Electronic device theft increased from 2003-2011 and had become an international problem with violent incidents that have resulted in severe injury or death documented in cities such as New York, Philadelphia, Shanghai, and Paris (Gentry, 2015). In Canada, theft with a tenor of violence would meet the Canadian Criminal Code definition for robbery. Some transit locations appear to form ‘malignant mixes' with surrounding neighbourhoods making some areas at risk for higher rates of robbery. For example, Block and Davis (1996) found that in one Chicago neighbourhood, 17% of robberies occurred within 300 Greater Vancouver's SkyTrain network has few parking structures attached to stations. Even without parking structures, people may find street parking near one of the many SkyTrain stations. SkyTrain does connect to many shopping and mixed land use properties with parking structures nearby that are accessible to commuters. 1 7 meters of a transit station while in another neighbourhood, 39% of robberies occurred within 300 meters of a transit station. A similar study in New York City found the proximity of schools and transit stations coincided with a spike in weekday afternoon robberies, while transit stations near drinking establishments coincided with weekend late evening robberies (Adams, Herrmann, & Felson, 2015). Hart and Miethe’s (2015) study in Henderson, Nevada found that in some cases the location of a bus stop puts transit passengers at higher risk of victimisation. A study of violent crime in parks in Houston, Texas, found that proximity to transit and a lack of amenities was indicative of a higher likelihood that violent crime would occur in any given park (Adams, Herrmann, & Felson, 2015). These findings suggest that an increased risk of violent crime victimisation is related to the presence or absence of a bus stop in conjunction with specific combinations of activity nodes that also serve as crime generators or attractors (Adams, Herrmann, & Felson, 2015; Hart & Miethe 2015). Smith and Clarke (2000) attributed the most severe transit-related crimes to the absence of guardianship that prevents crime from occurring. Next, there is a perception that a transit node will enable outside offenders to access new areas and increase or bring new crime to an area (Sedelmaier, 2015). Sedelmaier (2015) reviewed the addresses for arrested adult offenders in five New Jersey neighbourhoods, which benefited from a new transit line. One of the new transit lines included access to a shopping centre. The study found that ‘local’ adult offenders accounted for a majority of the total arrests and a majority of arrests in four of the five neighbourhoods. A majority of arrests in the neighborhood that connected the new transit line to a shopping centre were considered 8 outsiders and those arrests mostly occurred at the shopping centre, not the broader neighbourhood. Further, there was no statistical significance between the pre-service and postservice arrest rate of outsiders at the shopping centre. One opportunity for transit authorities to address crime in the broader environment around a transit station through careful timing and location planning for when to conduct fare checks. In 2011, Metro Vancouver Transit Police officers arrested 606 individuals on 747 outstanding warrants with 72% of arrests occurring because of fare checks (Plecas, Cohen, Rolleman, & Teindl, 2013). Kelling & Coles (1996) argued that indicates fare enforcement also reduces more severe crimes based on the premise that those who evade fares commit other crimes while on the system. Findings from Plecas et al., (2013) correlate to Kelling and Coles’ (1996) study as the offenders the MVTP arrested were considered ‘highly recidivist, serious, chronic offenders’ who were out in the community at large (Plecas et al., 2013). Fear and Safety on Transit In a report called ‘Railway Policing, What Matters to You’, the British Transport Police asserted that "feeling safe is as important as being safe” (British Transport Police, 2016). In the report, the 6,099 surveyed respondents across Great Britain identified the likelihood for them to be victimised at their local transit station. The findings revealed an ‘extremely likely’ response as high as 13% in one neighbourhood and as low as 5% in another neighbourhood. The significance of making passengers feel safe, regardless of how much actual crime may or may not be occurring, is a shared mandate among prominent transit systems (Smith and Clarke, 2000). Individual psychological factors provide one explanation for the variance of fear of crime in specific locations. However, the specific environment itself, and the ability for media to 9 influence the reputation of an area can also factor into an individual's perceived risk (LoukaitouSideris, 2012). Addressing fear of crime is vital for growth and development for the transit system as transit authorities cannot afford to lose customers to fear alone (Yavuz and Welch, 2010). Through victimisation surveys, we learn that fear of crime and risk of victimisation is at most weakly correlated with personal experience and actual crime (Gray, Jackson, & Farrell, 2010; Yavuz & Welch, 2010). The gap between real crime rates and fear of crime appears most evident in Japan, where actual crime rates are among the lowest in the developed world. However, Japan has a disproportionately high fear of crime (Shibata, Hanyu, & Hata, 2015; Mawby, 2017). In Japan, people perceive railway stations as less safe as compared to any other public facility (Funyu & Hanyu, 2003; Mawby, 2017). In London, Paris, and Rome, passengers were surveyed to estimate the frequency of unpleasant events at stations and found that estimates were higher than the actual occurrence of the unpleasant events (Uzzell, Breakwell, & Brown, 2000). Funyu and Hanyu, (2003) replicated part of the study by Uzzell, Breakwell, and Brown (2000) at three railway stations across Japan. Funyu and Hanyu (2003) administered two questionnaires, one of which was a translated version of the questionnaire used by Uzzell, Breakwell, and Brown (2000). Funyu and Hanyu (2003) found that gender did not significantly impact the expected or experienced unpleasantness of an unpleasant event at a station but noted that women tend to be victimised more on train cars than at stations. Another finding was that how unpleasant events were perceived correlated with the frequency of the unpleasant events. The researchers argued that if the occurrence of minor but frequent 10 unpleasant events were reduced, then feelings of comfort and safety would be expected to go up (Fanyu & Hanyu, 2003). Yavuz and Welch (2010) obtained data from a 2003 Chicago Transit Authority Customer Satisfaction Survey with over 1100 respondents. The researchers used the data to model respondents’ perceptions of safety while on transit. The Customer Satisfaction Survey found that women felt less safe and had more frequent negative experiences than men, but the researchers found no statistical significance at the probability level for those results. The researchers found that ethnic minorities, people with disabilities, low-income individuals, and those with fewer years as transit users had the lowest perceptions of safety (Yavuz & Welch, 2010). Further findings were that the presence of police, the presence of security cameras, and reliable service were strongly correlated to perceived safety for men and women, but the positive effects of reliable service and the presence of security cameras were significantly higher for men than women. More so than men, women’s perceived safety was significantly impacted by whether they had experienced a safety problem (Yavuz & Welch, 2010). It is also important to note that passenger’s do not all experience fear related to transit equally. For example, Yu and Smith (2005) studied the spatial concentration of vulnerable transit riders in New York City and found that neighbourhoods with the highest density of transit commuters were typically high in characteristics associated to vulnerability, such as age, ethnicity, gender, and income level (Yu & Smith, 2015). However, as will be discussed later, transit-related fear among women is also highly contextual. Youth who use various modes of transit in Philadelphia were found to have high levels of fear of assault during their daily activities, but what was interesting was fears were higher during the day than at night (Wiebe, 11 Richmond, Poster, Guo, Allison, & Branas, 2015). Wiebe et al. (2015) noted another interesting finding: that youth’s fear of crime was not linked to how long youth spent in high crime areas and hypothesized that the youth were unaware of the risk, were familiar with the area, and did not feel that risk was higher in specific areas (Wiebe et al., 2015). We can then see that fear has many potential dynamics, some of which can be the demographic dynamics related to an environment like gender, ethnicity, and age (Yavuz and Welch 2010). Research into perceptions of safety on transit systems indicates that gender is one of the most influential factors for perceived safety (Yu & Smith, 2015) with women’s perceptions of safety different from men’s while on transportation systems (Yavuz & Welch, 2010). On transit systems, men’s perceived safety was shown to significantly increase in the presence of security cameras compared to women (0.168 vs 0.103) (Yavuz & Welch, 2010). While interviews with women and women’s group representatives reveal that women commonly request additional transit staff or the presence of police to increase their feelings of safety (LoukaitouSideris, 2015). Yavuz & Welch, (2010) empirically demonstrated from survey data that women feel significantly safer (0.357 vs 0.103) in the presence of police compared to a security camera while on public transit. The gender difference concerning perceived safety on transit has led some to argue that transit safety is not a “gender-neutral subject” (Levin, 2015). Women on Transit A World Bank report (2016) indicates that men’s and women’s experiences with public transport systems differ considerably, mainly when related to physical security and safety. Women are at higher risk of violence from strangers on public transportation and walking to 12 and from transportation systems, which signifies the importance of a whole journey and transit-related approach to safety. Although feminists argue against stereotyping women as fearful or vulnerable, the fact remains that fear of transportation settings restricts many women’s mobility around the world (Loukaitou-Sideris, 2015). Studies on women's safety in transit environments reflect that the safety needs of women are far from uniform. Women’s right to mobility and public space safety is no different from anyone else's; however, it is women in cities around the world have no choice but to adopt strategies to avoid victimisation (Ceccato, 2017). Women's safety on public transit systems is particularly important because women everywhere are more dependent on public transit than men for access to employment, healthcare, and education (World Bank Report, 2016). For example, in New York City, a survey of commuters found women more reliant on public transportation than men (59.3% to 51.3% (Yu & Smith, 2015). Loukaitou-Sideris and Fink's (2009) survey of US transport agencies identified that 67% of the respondent agency representatives recognised that women have distinct safety and security needs, but that recognition has not necessarily led to programmes or policy to address those needs. What is under-recognised is that mobility patterns differ between men and women or boys and girls and so does the sexual victimisation during women's journeys to college, work and recreational activities. Only a few researchers, transit agencies and policymakers have directly asked women passengers about their safety needs or sought to identify women's proposals and preferences regarding safe and secure travel (Natarajan, Schmuhl, Sudula, & Mandala, 2017). 13 Research findings indicate several environments and settings that are of concern for women. Women are considered to have a more heightened sense of danger than men in public (Loukaitou-Sideris, 2015; de Jubainville & Vanier, 2017). Transit settings that raise women’s fears are typically enclosed spaces with limited exit opportunities such as parking structures, transit stations, and perhaps transit vehicles themselves. Other fear-inducing settings are empty open spaces like remote or desolate transit locations (Valentine, 1990), empty train cars, empty bus stops, and the presence of a lone male passenger (Loukaitou-Sideris, 2009). Women may be at a higher risk for victimisation if they are ‘transit captive’ and lack options to avoid dangerous environments. Women who are unable to avert hazardous environments are often found residing in low-income, high crime neighbourhoods, and the services that may only be accessible at or through dangerous environments (Loukaitou-Sideris, 2015). However, transit mobility is not merely a matter of income – age, education, and employment situations are also factors with younger, less educated, or unemployed women who are less able to change their travel routines (de Jubainville & Vanier, 2017). Fear riddled journeys for transit captive women also have broader implications for their psychological wellbeing through lacking transportation options and exposure to stressful environments and situations (de Jubainville & Vanier, 2017). De Jubainville and Vanier (2017) identified four profiles for women in the Paris region and their perceptions of fear on transit, based on socio-demographic characteristics and transportation habits. Among the daily worker profile, characterised by high transit use, 63% felt unsafe on transit in general and a quarter felt unsafe during their work commute. Feelings of unsafeness were prominent during early morning and evening times when poor lighting 14 conditions are typical. The second profile identified young women, of whom two-thirds felt unsafe on transit. Further, poor lighting affected safety for one third, and in general young women felt more unsafe at night during the weekend than any other profile. Inactive women represented the third profile and had the highest perceived safety (46% always felt safe), which the authors attributed to how a capable guardian often accompanied most of the inactive women. The researchers identified casual users as the last group and were the group that felt the least safe in transit environments. Causal users are characterised by unfamiliarity with transit systems and appeared the most affected by witnessing incivilities throughout the transit system (De Jubainville & Vanier, 2017). However, the last group’s fear may decrease as they become more familiar with their transit environment of choice (Yavuz and Welch 2010). Conversely, improving perceptions of safety for women on transit is commonly linked to reducing incivilities, better lighting in early morning and evenings, general cleanliness, and increased presence of transit staff or police (Loukaitou-Sideris, 2015). Fear affects mobility for women. In Canada, sexual assault victims self-reported many changes in their behaviour after they were victimised compared to non-victims (Cotter & Conroy, 2017). The most common changes in behaviour reported in 61% of victims were related to avoiding certain people or locations or making changes to their general routine. Further, 40% of victims reported they started carrying something for self-defence or to alert people nearby. Also, 60% of sexual assault victims reported they planned their mobility with safety in mind, and when compared with assault victims, sexual assault victims (49% vs 32%) were more likely to use a car, taxi, or public transportation instead of walking to improve their personal safety (Cotter & Conroy, 2017). 15 While some women may choose public transit to improve their safety, for others the transit environment can cause fear and restrict mobility. Fear prevents women from travelling without worry that the wrong choice of transit mode, setting, or time will negatively affect their safety. In South Africa, 21% of surveyed women indicated that their safety was a factor in choosing their mode of transit (Allen & Vanderschuren 2016). Loukaitou-Sideris’s (2015) survey of women and women’s group representatives found women take universal precautions when on transit such as choosing specific routes over others, choosing particular transit modes over others, only travelling during certain times, or entirely avoiding particular transit settings or activities altogether. In a series of interviews and focus groups in Sydney, Australia, Tulloch (2000) found older women discussed ceasing activities like going to the opera to avoid taking public transit at certain times. Younger women discussed their dependence on public transportation for mobility and adopting a strategy of monitoring people around them as potential assailants. In all cases, it was men that the young women were profiling as potential assailants (Tulloch, 2000). In a survey of New York City undergraduate students, Clark et al., (2016) found that 64.2% (n=52) of women changed their behaviour after they were the victim of a sexual assault in a public place. The two most common behaviour changes for victims were to be more cautious (39.2%) and to monitor their proximity to others (29.4%). In the same study, 32.1% women who were victims of exhibitionism also reported a change in behaviour (n=44) while the most common variation reported as being more cautious (45.5%). Even though there is a significant gap between fear of crime and victimisation, women do not forget that their gender group is at a higher risk of physical and sexual victimisation (Stanko, 1990). Sexual Offending on Transit 16 In general, sexual victimisation is considered gender-specific violence and forms an integral part of women’s broader feelings of unsafety (Junger, 1987). Women in public places, walking on the street, waiting for the bus or riding the train are vulnerable to sexual harassment (Loukaitou-Sideris, 2015; Mawby, 2017) and may be intimidated, followed or abused with sexual comments (Loukaitou-Sideris, 2015). While fear of rape is prominent in women, so too is the continuation of other forms of sexual harassment through intimidation, sexual comments (Loukaitou-Sideris, 2015; Stanko, 1990), leering, obscene gestures, unwanted touching, and sexual assault. Such incidents highlight the common abuse women across the globe experience while on transit systems (World Bank Report, 2016; Stanko, 1990). Loukaitou-Sideris (2015) notes that some women self-report that it is the risk of sexual assault in transit settings that make their needs different from those of men (Stringer, 2007). The fear women experience on transit systems may stem from being previously victimised, which the transport environment facilitated through an incident such as a groping (Condon, Lieber, & Maillochon, 2007), that the victim may or may not have reported. In a study using qualitative interviews and data from a general survey of residents in France called Enveff, over 78% of victims who self-reported public sexual harassment, including gropings, were afraid to go to certain neighbourhoods. Further, over 72% of victims disclosed being afraid to attend places with few people present after their victimisation (Condon, Lieber, & Maillochon, 2007). Crowded transit environments can create ideal conditions to facilitate sexual harassment, inappropriate touching, or groping where women travelling alone are vulnerable and may lack immediate escape options (Gekoski et al., 2015; Ceccato & Paz, 2017). Some sexual offenders may seek out a transit environment because a transit system allows an offender to get close to 17 a potential victim and disguise their touching, rubbing, or groping behaviour as incidental to the bumps and turns in the journey (Smith & Clarke, 2000). One study of sexual offenders in a custodial setting found those with a frotteuristic background self-reported on average upwards of 900 victims (Abel et al., 1987). The study acknowledged that some offenders in a group disclosure setting might have bragged; however, the study did bring to light that some offenders would routinely ride transit home from work looking for victims to sexually assault (Abel et al., 1987). A study of sexual harassment of Brazil's Sao Paulo Metro found there are distinct peaks in time of recorded incidents of sexual harassment and or sexual violence that correspond to people's daily routine activities. Most of these events happen from Monday to Friday (20% on Mondays and Tuesdays and only 6% on Saturdays) when people are going to or returning from work. The most significant peak in cases happens during rush hour in the morning, between 8:00 and 9:00, and in the late afternoon between 18:00 and 19:00, and a slight increase in June and July but not tested longitudinally over seasons (Ceccato & Paz, 2017). In a study with a whole journey approach, female students in New York City were most concerned about sexual victimisation during their commute to college, which included walking to and from a transit stop, waiting for a transit vehicle, and riding transit (Natarajan et al., 2017). Research into sexual offence victimisation rates in London has found that 15% of women and girls have experienced unwanted sexual behaviour on the London transport network (Gekoski et al., 2015). While a YouGov survey, for the End Violence Against Women Coalition, found unwanted sexual attention prevalent among nearly a third of women aged 1824 while on London's transport network (Gekoski et al., 2015). 18 Researchers have sought to identify what forms of sexual harassment are most prevalent in the various transit nodes such as bus stops, transit stations in a general context, subway systems, or onboard buses or trains. Lea, D’Silva, and Asok (2017) found groping was more common than catcalls or harassing comments while riding a bus as the most common place to experience sexual assault. Ceccato and Paz (2017) found that sexual harassment and violence occurred more frequently in busy central stations that have a high presence of staff and CCTV cameras, during morning and afternoon rush hour periods, and correlated to stations with elevated levels of social disorder. When experiencing a sexual assault, women often employ a variation of three common strategies – keeping silent, getting away from the offender, and making a scene (Lea, D’Silva, Asok, 2017). Remaining silent is attributed to the victim’s shame and embarrassment, getting away from the offender is also associated to a victim’s shame, while making a scene was found to shame the offender who often immediately left the scene. Shaming the offender also correlated with the highest likelihood that a bystander would intervene (n=25 vs n=7) and was argued to be the best strategy for women experiencing a sexual assault (Lea, D’Silva, Asok, 2017). Unfortunately, social or cultural norms may prevent many women from making a scene (Lea et al., 2017; Ceccato, 2017). Ball and Wesson (2017) found potential bystanders were more likely to report a severe incident regardless of how dense a transit setting was but were most likely to intervene in a low-density transit setting. Iudici, Bertoli, and Faccio (2017) conducted a literature review of women with disabilities on transit, a topic the researcher's state is under-researched. The researchers obtained data from a 2009 US General Social Survey, which found that 70% of women with 19 developmental disabilities are sexually assaulted. From the literature review, Iudici, Bertoli, and Faccio (2017) identified several factors for why criminals may sexually offend against women with disabilities. Such reasons are that the offender takes advantage of real or perceived vulnerabilities, the offender is exerting power over the victim, the offender believes they can get away with it, or the offender has a prejudice against a woman with a disability. In Canada, a self-reported survey of sexual assault victims found that people with disabilities in general and women with mental disabilities specifically, were twice as likely to be victims of sexual assault than individuals with no disability (Cotter & Conroy, 2017). The mental health of sexual assault offenders at times may be a factor. Offenders who sexually assault victims with non-consensual groping or rubbing assaults, who also concurrently suffer from intense sexual fantasies lasting over six months, may meet the criteria of a diagnosis of frotteurism in the Diagnosis and Statistics Manual for mental disorders (DSM IV, 1991). Unfortunately, research into the prevalence of frotteurism in the general population has been inconsistent with best estimates indicating that two to three percent of the population might at one point suffer from frotteurism (Johnson, Ostermeyer, Sikes, Nelsen, & Coverdale, 2014). Interestingly, persons who meet the DSM definition of frotteurism have a high degree of comorbidity with other paraphiliac conditions, specifically exhibitionism and voyeurism (Freund & Watson, 1990). Comorbidity has also been offered as an explanation for why there are few frotteurism diagnoses as individuals with frotteurism characteristics have also been found to suffer from other mental health conditions such as depression, anxiety, hyper-sexuality, and poor coping skills (Raymond, Coleman, & Miner, 2003). Horley (2001), a clinical psychologist counselled two subjects who were diagnosed as frotteurs, whom Horley preferred to 20 characterise as timid or non-violent rapists. Horley (2001) conducted a rape assessment on one subject finding the subject was averse to extreme violence but had coercive sexual fantasies. Horley (2001) concluded that a frotteur could become a rapist if the right amount of courage builds up while in the presence of a docile victim. An online survey about exposure to frotteurism and exhibitionism administered to 495 New York City undergraduate students found that 44% of the total sample were victimised by acts of frotteurism or exhibitionism at some point in their lives (Clark, Jelic, Calkins, & Tartar, 2016). A majority of the victimisation was found to occur on public transit. Many victims of frotteuristic sexual assaults self-reported lasting feelings of violation, changes in their travel behaviour, and long-term psychological distress in 35% of victims. Further, the survey found that 65% of victims told someone in their social network, but less than 5% reported the incident to police (Clark et al., 2016). Reporting Sexual Offences Research shows that the reporting rate for sexual offences is low in general and, particularly on mass transit systems. A 2007 survey that found that 63% of respondents experienced sexual harassment at least once on the New York City subway, but only four percent of those harassed contacted the authorities to file a report (Stringer, 2007). In London, 90% of women who experienced sexual harassment or sexual assault on public transportation did not report the incident to police (Transport for London, 2015). Statistics Canada conducts a general social survey (GSS) every fifth year which includes some general questions about victimisation. The 2014 survey data showed that the rate of victims who self-reported sexual assault had remained constant from 2004 to 2014 (Conroy & 21 Cotter, 2017). In 2004, 88% of all sexual assault incidents were not reported to the police while in 2014, 83% of all sexual assault incidents were not reported to police (Conroy & Cotter, 2017). The data also identified common reasons why sexual assault victims do not report to police. The most common reason for not reporting a sexual assault to police was that, in 71% of cases, the victim believed that the incident was not severe enough to report. Other reasons for not reporting a sexual assault were a belief that the matter was private and could be handled informally (67%), that no one was harmed by the incident (63%). Also, some victims thought there was a lack of evidence (43%) to support the claims (Conroy & Cotter, 2017: 17). Other studies about the reasons victims do not report sexual assault found that some victims do not report to police for fear of the criminal justice system, and fear of adverse reactions from police. There are concerns about victim blaming in that the victim will be blamed for their manner of dress or for staying out too late (Ullman & Filipas, 2001; Suarez & Gadalla, 2010). Lastly, if police are not present at or around the time of the sexual assault, victims may not report as they do not know how or are otherwise unwilling or unable to report (Natarajan et al., 2017; Stringer, 2007, Transport for London, 2015; Ceccato & Paz, 2017). Interestingly, a pair of studies assessed post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) factors among victims reporting sexual assaults (Stansell & Jennings, 2010; Walsh & Bruce, 2014). Stansell & Jennings (2010) found that victims who reported sexual assault were impacted less by PTSD systems compared to non-reporting victims or recovered from the effects of PTSD faster than victims who did not report. Stansell and Jennings (2010) argued that the benefit to reporting was that it allowed victims to re-take control of their experience. Walsh and Bruce (2014) argued that PTSD symptoms for hyperarousal increased the overall likelihood that a 22 victim would report a sexual assault, and conversely, PTSD symptoms associated to dissociation decreased the possibility a victim would report a sexual assault as victims were presumed to avoid situations that remind them of the incident. After a victim reports to police, there is potential to be re-traumatised by providing a statement to police and from being cross-examined in court (Ceccato & Paz, 2017). It may be that non-reporting for fear of the criminal justice system emanates from not wanting to relive the trauma experienced during the sexual assault; in other words, the victim may prefer to dissociate from their experience. Ceccato and Paz (2017) argued for other avenues women can report, such as through NGOs and women's groups, as there might be more support in these types of initiatives that the police can offer. Some scholars theorise that the nature of overcrowded, jostling transit environments allows offenders actions to go undetected and victims themselves may not realise they were sexually assaulted (Gekoski et al., 2015; Stringer, 2007) or perceive the incident as too ambiguous to act upon (Batson, 1998). A survey administered to 200 female university students in Lucknow, India, every respondent indicated they were either victim to or witnessed sexual harassment while riding a bus or other forms of public transit. Yet public statistics indicate there were no reports of sexual harassment to the appropriate authorities (Tripathi, Borrion, & Belur, 2017). Lea, D’Silva, and Asok, (2017) obtained crowd-sourced data accounting for 137 sexual assaults on buses in India. The researchers identified that victims responded to a sexual assault in three ways: remaining silent, moving away from the offender, and making a scene. The researchers found that bystanders intervened to assist the victim on 25 occasions of the 72 instances victims made a scene, and bystander intervention only occurred in response to when 23 a victim made a scene (Lea, D’Silva, &Asok, 2017). Lea, D’Silva, and Asok, (2017) discussed that some women might not want to respond to a sexual assault by confronting the offender or report sexual harassment out of fear of stigma for them and their families. In sum, the literature indicates that women's safety on transit is an important issue that requires a multipronged approach as many women around the world are more dependent on public transportation than men (World Bank Report, 2016), have a higher sense of fear in public spaces (Loukaitou-Sideris, 2015; De Jubainville & Vanier, 2017), and have higher sense of fear while travelling on transit (Valentine, 1990; Loukaitou-Sideris, 2009; Yavuz & Welch 2010). Regardless of whether a woman is on transit or not, fear from sexual assault is a prevailing reminder of a women’s vulnerability in most cases at the hands of men (Condon, Lieber, & Maillochon, 2007). On transit, offenders can disguise their actions as incidental, which makes it difficult for witnesses to observe and intervene (Gekoski et al., 2015; Ceccato & Paz, 2017), which can factor into why victims who are sexually assaulted rarely notify police (Clarke et al., 2016). In addition to awareness raising and promotion of reporting campaigns, improving perceptions of safety should include adding safety features such as increasing quantity and quality of lighting, installing or upgrading CCTV, emergency phones, and request stops on buses (Gekoski et al., 2015). Also important for improving perceptions of safety is developing technologies such as smartphone apps and the internet to make crime reporting faster or easier (Gekoski et al., 2015). Victims could perceive a lack of crime reporting options as a lack of support or foster a perception that it is too difficult to report, which can further perpetuate low sexual offences reporting rates (Natarajan et al., 2017 Ceccato & Paz, 2017; Ceccato, 2017). 24 The Response of Metro Vancouver Transit Police to Sexual Offences The Metro Vancouver Transit Police (MVTP) was established at the end of 2005 and are the first and currently the only police service dedicated to a public transportation system in Canada. Their authorised strength is now 183 sworn officers with full police powers in the Province of British Columbia. The MVTP covers much of the public transportation network in the Greater Vancouver region but mostly focus on the SkyTrain system, which incorporates the Expo, Millennium, and Canada Lines, as well as the recent Evergreen Line extension. The Metro Vancouver Transit Police have identified four operational priorities: reducing sexual offences, reducing frontline workplace assaults, helping vulnerable people in crisis, and building system resiliency (MVTP website 2018-01-19). Gekoski et al. (2015) argued that the MVTP has one of the best approaches to women's safety on transit compared to other transit systems around the world. Gekoski et al. (2015) argued the combination of security features like silent alarms, CCTV, emergency phones, and presence of staff in conjunction with MVTP sexual assault awareness campaigns, text reporting app, and campaigns encouraging reporting resulted in an internationally leading approach to sexual harassment on public transit. The MVTP's approach to women's safety is critical considering that a majority of the ridership they protect are women. In 2013, the Metro Vancouver Transit Police advised that the prevention and detection of sexual offending was an organisational priority. Many of the sexual crimes reported to the MVTP are "groping's” or other “inappropriate touching’s” (MVTP, 2015). The MVTP believes that only 10% of victims report incidents of unwanted sexual attention and notes the mass 25 transit system provides a crowded environment that offenders use to their advantage (MVTP website 2018-01-19; MVTP, 2015). To combat sexual offending, the Metro Vancouver Transit Police has taken initiatives to encourage sexual offence reporting, and to raise awareness to the issue of sexual misbehaviour on public transportation. At the end of 2013, the Metro Vancouver Transit Police implemented an SMS texting program for mobile phones called Chatterbox. The Chatterbox application allows the public to report concerns about social disorder and criminal offences on or near the transit system and provides transit users with a discrete method of contacting the police. Overall, 72% of all Chatterbox reports transitioned into police reports. St. Cyr (2017) found that the Chatterbox application played a significant role in increasing sexual assault reports to the MVTP over a four-year period as the text reporting application was used to report sexual assaults in 47 cases between January 1, 2014, and December 31, 2016 (St. Cyr, 2017). Also, in December 2013, MVTP initiated a public campaign to raise awareness and increase reporting about sexual offending on transit, called See Something, Say Something (MVTP, 2013). The campaign included multi-lingual advertising at transit hubs, platforms and interiors of SkyTrain vehicles across Metro Vancouver (MVTP, 2013; MVTP, 2014). In spring 2014, the Metro Vancouver Transit Police joined a transatlantic police operation called Project Global Guardian, with the goal to raise awareness to issues of sexual offences in transit environments. This initiative involved a coordinated week of action with British Transport Police, the London Metropolitan Police Service, Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority Police Department, Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority 26 Police Department and the Metro Vancouver Transit Police, and gained international media attention (MVTP, 2014). In 2015, there were further developments in the Transit Police's response to sexual offences. Police officers gave presentations at 22 events; the most notable events were: Vancouver Police Department's Women's Safety Fair; the BC Crime Prevention Association symposium; and the TOGETHER Domestic Violence conference (MVTP, 2015). The Metro Vancouver Transit Police also partnered with “Hollaback" (Vancouver) in a 'Transit Tuesdays' campaign. Hollaback is an international non-profit organisation dedicated to ending harassment in public spaces. The campaign not only encouraged reporting but provided transit users with tools to help them intervene if they witnessed harassment taking place (MVTP, 2015; TransLink, 2015). In 2016, the Metro Vancouver Transit Police launched a new four-year strategic plan. The implications for sexual offending in the strategic plan were actions to promote investigative excellence in sexual offence investigations, to target chronic offenders and high-risk behaviours, and to enhance specialist capacity in response to specific crime types, disorder, and hotspots (MVTP, 2016b). Additionally, the MVTP partnered with the Battered Women’s Support Services and Ending Violence Association of BC in launching a new poster campaign (MVTP, 2016). Methodology To answer the research questions set out earlier about the spatial-temporal pattern of reported sexual assaults, and the changes to the Metro Vancouver Transit Police’s response, the following methodology was employed. The researcher collected and analysed 27 administrative data related to sexual assault files reported to the MVTP during the five-year period from 2013-01-01 to 2017-12-31. The data were accessed through the police database RMS with permission from the Metro Vancouver Transit Police. A PRIME query for Metro Vancouver Transit Police files was conducted using three Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) codes for sexual assault, 1330 for sexual assault, 1320 for sexual assault with a weapon or causing bodily harm, and 1310 for aggravated sexual assault for the date range 2013-01-01 to 2017-12-31. The query resulted in a total of 801 available police files, which also included records where the MVTP assisted another agency in a sexual assault investigation. There were also three privatised files that appeared in the query and were omitted from the study, which left a total of 797 MVTP files related to sexual assault. Of the 797 files, the MVTP was the lead investigating agency on 411 occasions, or 51.6%. The MVTP assisted another agency with a sexual assault investigation on 343 occasions or 43%. Upon further review, there were 43 sexual assaults reported to the MVTP which were deemed “unsubstantiated” (i.e., the elements of the offence were not present) accounting for 5.4% of all 797 files. Each report was accessed individually and reviewed, and the following anonymised data was collected from each file when available. The data elements were: • The year, month, the day of the week, and time the incident occurred. • The victim’s age, race, and gender. • The offender’s age, race, and gender. • How the incident was reported. • The elapsed time from the incident to the report to police. 28 • Where on transit the incident occurred. • If a suspect or person of interest was identified. • Whether sexual assault criminal charges were recommended to the Crown against an identified suspect. • Whether Crown counsel approved or a recommended sexual assault charge or not. • The court disposition of the recommended charge of sexual assault. Data and Analysis The dataset collected were analysed using the SPSS program. Three categories of incidents were identified to characterize the MVTP sexual assault police files: “founded” for sexual assault reports where an alleged sexual assault occurred or was confirmed to have occurred; “assists”, for cases in which the MVTP was assisting another police agency with a sexual assault investigation; and, “unsubstantiated cases”. According to the Statistics Canada publication JustResearch No.14, unsubstantiated cases occurred when there is “no evidence to confirm whether an offence has been committed” (Hattem, 2017). Further police files are considered unfounded when “there is evidence that an offence did not occur or was not attempted (Hattem, 2017). Within the assist category, the MVTP had 16 files considered unfounded. Table 1. MVTP SEXUAL ASSALT FILES, 2013-2017 Type of File Founded Total Files 411 Percentage 51.6% Assist another Police Agency 343 43.0% Unsubstantiated 43 5.4% Total 797 100% 29 Focussing only on the founded incidents, Table 2 breaks down the number of events per year. Data were captured when founded incidents occurred and were reported by year, month, and day of the week. There was no discernable pattern of incidence over the five-year period between 2013 and 2017. Table 2. FOUNDED SEXUAL ASSAULT BY YEAR, 2013-2017 Year 2013 Files 56 Percentage 13.6% 2014 102 24.8% 2015 96 23.4% 2016 70 17.0% 2017 87 21.2% Total 411 100% The number of reported sexual assaults by month (n=411) are listed in Figure 1 and in Figure 2 the monthly reported sexual assaults are broken down by year. 50 60 54 Figure 1. SEXUAL ASSAULTS BY MONTH 28 29 33 29 37 31 26 30 28 40 29 37 50 20 10 0 30 Figure 2 MONTHLY SEXUAL ASSAULTS BY YEAR 20 15 10 5 17 16 10 7 6 5 4 5 3 14 12 10 8 6 9 7 6 8 6 4 3 2 12 11 10 7 5 4 3 7 9 8 7 6 Feb March Apr 2013 9 8 9 8 9 4 4 3 5 4 3 6 4 3 Oct Nov Dec 1 0 Jan 9 8 7 May June 2014 July 2015 Aug 2016 Sept 2017 Figure 3, depicted below, shows the frequency of reported sexual assaults by day of the week for the total 411 reported incidents. While Figure 4 reveals the day of the week for reported sexual assaults by year. Figure 3. SEXUAL ASSAULTS BY DAY OF THE WEEK 65 61 64 70 66 72 80 48 60 50 35 40 30 20 10 0 Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday Sunday 31 Figure 4 YEARLY SEXUAL ASSAULTS BY DAY OF THE WEEK 25 20 15 10 5 0 Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday 2014 2015 2016 2017 2013 Sunday The time of the offence for sexual assaults, shown in figure 5, was categorised into twelve similar two-hour segments for each year (Figure 6), in which there was accurate time data available for 403 of the 411 reported incidents. The time category reflected when a victim stated a sexual assault occurred. If no victim was identified, then the time reflected when a third-party witness stated the incident occurred. There were eight instances where the time was omitted because the time of the incident was not determined due to a report delay so long that the time of incident could not be determined. Figure 5. TIME OF OFFENCE 82 57 48 33 23 11 3 28 52 42 23 1 0000 - 0200 - 0400 - 0600 - 0800 - 1000 - 1200 - 1400 - 1600 - 1800 - 2000 - 2200 0159 0359 0559 0759 0959 1159 1359 1559 1759 1959 2159 2359 32 Figure 6 TIME OF OFFENCE BY YEAR 25 20 15 10 5 0 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 Figure 7 2011 TRANSLINK WEEKDAY RIDERSHIP BY HOUR OF THE DAY 33 Figure 8 below depicts TransLink trip rate in millions and by age range. Figure 8 2011 TRANSLINK RIDERSHIP TRIP PURPOSE Victim race (n=440) and offender race (n=417) were categorised by the ethnicity reporting options available to Metro Vancouver Transit Police officers in the police database PRIME (Table 3). The researcher used the same PRIME ethnicity options used by MVTP officers for listing victim and offender ethnicity. The ethnicity options were: Caucasian, Asian, South Asian, Aboriginal, Black, Hispanic, Middle Eastern, Other, and Unknown. Four victims were not categorised by ethnicity in PRIME, and five offenders listed in PRIME had no ethnicity information. The missing data were included in the analysis as the four missing cases had an insignificant impact on the victim and offender ethnicity data. 34 Table 3. VICTIM AND OFFENDER ETHNICITY Ethnicity Frequency Percent Frequency Percent Offenders Victims Caucasian 193 43.9% 133 31.9% Asian 120 27.3% 53 12.7% South Asian 24 5.5% 76 18.2% Aboriginal 18 4.1% 32 7.7% Black 11 2.5% 33 7.9% Hispanic 15 3.4% 27 6.5% Middle Eastern 17 3.9% 32 7.7% Other 0 0.0% 0 0.0% Unknown 38 8.6% 26 6.2% Missing 4 0.9% 5 1.2% Total 440 100% 417 100% Not all sexual assault victims personally reported the incident to police. Witnesses or other victims may have observed a sexual assault on another victim and provided information about the victim to police. Victim and offender data were collected for each reported (n=411) sexual assault. The data collected did not account for offenders potentially responsible for multiple incidents, or individuals victimised more than once over that five-year period. The data did not always include precise information on the victim’s age or the offender’s age. Victim’s age information was available in 396 files, and offender’s age information in 396 files. Victim and offender ages were calculated at the time of the incident. If age was given as a range, the mean age was used. If the mean age was a half number, age was rounded down to the nearest whole number. There were 185 unidentified offenders (nearly 48%) who were assigned a mean age to their age range. A limitation in the offenders’ age 37 category was that offenders could be counted more than once. Regardless, the mean age for all offenders was 41.75 years old. A victim gender analysis identified eleven male victims of sexual assault, 2.5 percent of the total victims. An offender gender analysis identified five female offenders, 1 percent of the total offenders. Figure 9 VICTIMS’ AGE 12% 17 or Under 25% 18-24 40% 25-31 23% Over 32 Data on the transit location where sexual assaults occurred is depicted in Figure 9. Six broad categories for where a sexual assault occurred were identified as: a SkyTrain, onboard or stepping off; a bus, onboard or stepping off; a SkyTrain Station; a bus stop; a pathway where the victim was walking to or leaving a transit station; and unrelated, where the incident occurred at a location seemingly unrelated to transit. An example of an event separate to transit was one case where a sexual assault occurred inside a restaurant at Waterfront Station in Vancouver, a major, multi-modal transit hub. The incident circumstances revealed no connection to traveling to or from the transit station. 38 Figure 10. TRANSIT LOCATIONS WHERE SEXUAL ASSAULTS OCCURRED 16, 4% 13, 3% Train Bus 74, 19% 133, 33% SkyTrain Station Bus Stop Pathway 166, 41% Other Data on the manner in which sexual assault incidents were reported to the Metro Vancouver Transit Police are shown in Table 4. The reporting categories are noted as follows: when the victim or someone on behalf of the victim reports in person to transit staff personnel (Transit Police, SkyTrain Attendant, Bus operator, Transit Security, or Transit Supervisor); when the victim or someone on behalf of the victim (family, friend, social worker) calls into Transit Police to report a sexual assault; or when the victim or someone on behalf of the victim (family, friend, social worker) reports a sexual assault by sending an SMS text to Transit Police. The categories identified for third-party reporting were: when a third-party report by unknown means; when a third-party witness reports in person to transit personnel (Transit Police, SkyTrain Attendant, Bus operator, Transit Security, or Transit Supervisor); when a third-party called into the MVTP to report a sexual assault; and, when a third-party witness text reported to transit police. The other two reporting categories were: when it was unknown how and who made the report; and, when a victim contacted used a TransLink, or MVTP online type customer 39 service features such as email, website form, or social media. Incidents where MVTP officers observed a sexual assault through surveillance or while on patrol, and in one case, a variable was used for when a victim attended the Metro Vancouver Transit Police’s head office to report a sexual assault. Of note, in Computer Aided Dispatch (CAD) reports, there were cases where a victim called the emergency line 911. For such cases, it appeared that 911 calls went to the police agency in the city where the incident occurred. The 911 dispatcher then appeared to notify the MVTP which then took ownership of the report and responded appropriately. For such cases, the researcher took a position that a victim reporting an emergency could not be expected to know the inner workings of how an emergency line operates or any agreements between police agencies and an emergency communication operation. Thus, cases where the victim calls into 911 and the report is diverted to the MVTP were treated as a victim calling into the MVTP. Table 4 METHODS FOR REPORTING SEXUAL ASSAULTS Method Files Victim on Scene 123 Percent 29.9% Victim Call In 171 Victim SMS Text 44 41.6% 10.7% Method 3rd Party Unknown 3rd Party Call 3rd Party SMS Text 3rd Party on Scene Files 5 Percent 1.2% Method Unknown Files 4 Percent 1% 16 3 3.9% 0.7% 21 7 5.1% 1.7% 11 2.7% Online feature Police Observed Attended Police Station 1 0.2% Sexual assault reporting delays (n=414) was assigned a nominal value for one of the noted categories: < 1 hour to report, >1 hour and within the same day that the incident occurred, one to seven days where day one represented the day after the incident occurred, and >7days. The total number of founded sexual assault investigations identified in this study 40 was 411. The how reported variable was n=406 with five missing variables; however, the report delay variable was n=414. Figure 11 HOURS BETWEEN INCIDENT AND REPORT TO THE MVTP 25 38 105 242 0 50 100 >1 week 150 1-7 days 200 250 > hr and same day 300 < 1hr The number of offenders identified were analyzed by year and broken down by the type of identification. The identification categories are: a “suspect”, which included offenders categorised in PRIME as a suspect, suspect chargeable, charged, or recommended charge; no ID if no suspect identification was made; and “person of interest”. Table 5. TOTAL SUSPECTS IDENTIFIED EACH YEAR 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 Total Suspect 22 No ID made 30 46 49 51 43 33 31 38 45 190 198 Person of 5 Interest Total 57 8 4 6 6 29 103 98 70 89 417 The total number of offenders recommended for sexual assault charges by Metro Vancouver Transit Police officers in shown below in Figure 12. 41 Figure 12 SUSPECTS RECOMMENDED TO CROWN FOR SEXUAL ASSAULT CHARGE Reports to Crown Counsel NO 64 YES 125 0 20 40 60 80 100 120 140 FIGURE 13 YEARLY SEXUAL ASSAULTS CLEARED BY CHARGE Yes No 18 15 12 10 9 29 33 23 26 14 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 Whether Crown Counsel appeared to approve the recommended charge or not is shown in Figure 13, and Table 6 reveals year by year approval data approved cases. 42 Table 6 YEARLY REPORTS APPROVED BY CROWN COUNSEL Yes 2013 10 (71.4%) No 4 (28.6%) Total 14 (100%) 2014 17 (58.6%) 12 (41.4%) 29 (100%) 2015 20 (60.6%) 13 (39.4%) 33 (100%) 2016 14 (60.9%) 9 (39.1%) 23 (100%) 2017 20 (76.9%) 6 (23.1%) 26 (100%) Total 81 44 125 Table 7 YEARLY CONVICTIONS2 Sexual Assault 2013 2 Other 3 Peace Bond 0 Pending 0 Total 5(50%) 2014 5 4 2 1* 11(64.7%) 2015 4 11 3 0 18(90%) 2016 3 6 1 0 10(71.4%) 2017 4 2 0 12 6(30%)** Total 18 26 6 13 50 The conviction rate of an MVTP sexual assault investigation in court was also tabulated. The categories for court results are: Stay of Proceedings; conviction or conditional discharge for 2 A conviction rate is calculated against the number of Crown Counsel approved reports (Stats Canada). * The file is likely still pending due to a court records clerical error as the accused is deceased. ** There are still 12 sexual assault cases before the courts at the time of this research paper. 43 Sexual Assault still pending court resolution; guilty of a “lesser offence” other than sexual assault; the accused entered into a Section 810 Peace Bond; the accused was deported while the matter was before the courts; dismissed in court; deceased, i.e., the accused died before the matter was resolved in court; the accused fled the country while the case was still before the courts; the case was withdrawn from court; acquittal; and diversion or alternative measures. Lastly, only one sexual assault was reported to the MVTP where a UCR code for violence was required. Findings Incidents Sexual assaults reported to the Metro Vancouver Transit Police that were deemed founded incidents nearly doubled from 56 incidents in 2013 to 102 reported incidents in 2014. Subsequent years would not be as busy as reports declined in 2015 to 96 reports, 70 reports in 2016, and rose again in 2017 to 87 reported, founded incidents. It appeared that there were annual spikes in sexual assaults reported to the MVTP in May primarily, and July secondarily. Aggregate data shows that most sexual assaults are reported between Monday to Friday, which is consistent with the primary trip purpose for both male and female ridership (Figures 4 & 8). A year by year analysis showed that reports appeared to decline over the weekend. There was much more consistency in the time of day reported sexual assaults occurred. The peak incident time was between 4 pm and 6 pm, followed by 8 am to 10 am. In 2011, TransLink ridership data on weekdays indicated that peak ridership travel time for the day was at 8 am with an afternoon ridership rush starting at 3 pm with a slight decrease from 4 pm to 5 pm. Stringer’s (2007) online survey of over 1700 New 44 York City subway users where 51% of respondents reported most incidents of sexual harassment and sexual assault occurred during the morning (52%) and evening (69%) rush hour times. Similarly, the findings in this paper correlate to findings on Brazil’s Sao Paulo transit system where sexual harassment and sexual violence were associated to routine activities during Monday to Friday from 0800 to 0900 hours and 1800 to 1900 hours (Ceccato & Paz, 2017). The findings for the victim race variable revealed that two ethnicity groups accounted for 71.8% of sexual assault victims. Caucasians were the highest represented group that comprised 43.9% (n=193) of all victims, followed by Asians who comprised 27.3% (n=120) of all victims. Further, the overwhelmingly majority of reported victims (percentage) were female as only 11 men (2.5%) reported themselves as a victim. There were 417 reported offenders relating to 411 reported sexual assault incidents. There was a total of 440 reported victims related to the same 411 reported incidents; these data indicate that a typical sexual assault report to the Metro Vancouver Transit Police involves one offender and one victim. The demographic profile for offenders reported to the MVTP was that Caucasian offenders were the highest reported group at 31.9% (n=133) of all offenders, followed by South Asians at 18.2% (n=76) and Asians at 12.7% (n=53) of total reported offenders. Compared to victims who were mostly 29 years old or younger, the age range for offenders appeared more equally distributed, and the median age for offenders was calculated to be 41.75 years old. There were only two offenders who were either identified as or reported as a youth under 18 years old. Adult offenders aged 18 to 28 constituted 24.5% of reported offenders, offenders aged 29 to 39 represented 22.2% of all offenders, and offenders aged 40 45 years old or older were a majority of all reported offenders at 52.8%. Only 11 men were reported as victims, and only five offenders were reported as females. A majority of the sexual assaults that were reported to the Metro Vancouver Transit Police occurred onboard a city bus, followed by onboard a SkyTrain, and at a SkyTrain Station. There was a vast array of bus routes where a sexual assault was reported. The bus routes where the most sexual assaults were reported were routes 319 (6.9%), 99b (6.3%), 49 (5.6%), 16 (5%), the 323 and 410 both accounted for 3.1% of all reported incidents. The bus route patterns are available to view on the TransLink website. Route 319 travels from Scott Road Station to the Newton Bus Exchange in Surrey, British Columbia (BC). The 99b bus takes passengers from Broadway Commercial Station to the University of British Columbia (UBC). Route 49 travels from Metrotown Station to UBC, and route 16 travels from 29th Station to Waterfront Station in Downtown, Vancouver. While there are over 50 SkyTrain Stations, only 29 stations were the reported location for a sexual assault. The SkyTrain Station where the most reported incidents occurred at was Broadway Commercial Station (n=9, 9.5%), New Westminster Station, (n=8, 8.4%), Waterfront Station (n= 6, 6.3%), Main Street Station (n=6, 6.3%), and Surrey Central Station (n=5, 5.3%). There were several stations that each accounted for 4.2% (n=4) of reported incidents and those stations were 22nd Street Station, Granville Station, King George Station, Lougheed Station, Metrotown Station, Patterson Station, and Scott Road Station. Added together, the twelve stations that were mentioned totalled 65.2% of all reported incidents at stations. The MVTP Response Findings related to the MVTP’s response to sexual assault reports revealed that the MVTP identified a suspect or person of interest in 52.2% of reported sexual assaults. The MVTP 46 identified 186 suspects (45.1%) and 29 (7.1%) persons of interest in 411 reported cases. Officers with the MVTP demonstrated an ability to identify suspects with proficiency across transit environments. The suspect identification rate commendable considering that all of the offenders were strangers to the victims; this is quite different than sexual assaults generally, in which the offender is known to a victim in the majority of cases across Canada (Conroy & Cotter, 2017). Officers identified suspects or persons of interest from 48.1% of reports on trains, from 48.5% of reports on buses, and from 59.7% of reports at SkyTrain Stations. The MVTP’s ability to identify offenders typically improved year by year since the MVTP prioritised sexual offending in 2013. In 2013, suspects and persons of interest were identified in 44.4% of cases, in 2014 that rate rose to 50.9%, in 2015 the rate again rose to 57.2%. In 2016 the suspect and person of interest identification rate dipped to 55.7%, and in 2017 the identification rate declined again to 47.6% of offenders identified from reported sexual assaults. Regardless, the overall and yearly solvability, regarding identifying suspects or persons of interest, improved upon the first year that the MVTP prioritised sexual offending. There were 125 suspects (67.2%) that were the subject of recommendations to Crown Counsel for a criminal charge of sexual assault. The 125 suspects recommended for a sexual assault charge also represented 30.4% of the 411 founded, reported sexual offences reported to the MVTP; that is, nearly one in three sexual assault reports to the MVTP leads to a recommended charge of sexual assault against the offender. Year by year data shows that the ratio of identifying suspects to forwarding recommended charges to Crown Counsel remained similar. In 2013, sexual assault charges were recommended against 14 of 22 identified suspects (63.6%), in 2014, 29 of 46 suspects were recommended for a sexual assault charge (63%), in 47 2015, 33 of 51 suspects had the same fate as suspects in previous years (64.7%), in 2016, 23 of 33 identified suspect were recommended for a sexual assault charge (66.6%), and in 2017, the rate rose again where police recommended a sexual assault charge against 26 of 38 identified suspects (68.4%). The PRIME data available to the researcher indicated that Crown Counsel did not approve the recommended charges submitted by police on 44 out of 125 occasions. The researcher identified 81 instances where it appeared that Crown Counsel approved and proceeded with the recommended charges further along into the court system. The resulting findings would then be that 81 of the 125 individuals recommended for charges (64.8%) are approved by Crown Counsel; the 81 approved cases would also mean that the MVTP collect evidence and prepare a report that meets Crown Counsel’s highest-in-Canada threshold for approval. In BC, Crown Counsel approves reports submitted by police in part based on public interest and a substantial likelihood of conviction (Prosecution Service, 2018), while most other Provinces in Canada rely on a reasonable likelihood of conviction. Still, nearly one in five (19.4%) of all 417 offenders in the 411 founded, reported sexual assault cases. It should be noted here that British Columbia (BC) is one of three Provinces that requires police reports to be “pre-screened” by Crown Counsel for approval. A year by year analysis of sexual assault reports submitted to Crown Counsel revealed a recent and notable change in the apparent approval rate. In 2013, it appeared that Crown Counsel approved 71.4% (n=10) of the recommended sexual assault charges, in 2014, the approval rate dropped to 58.6% (n=17) of submissions, in 2015, the sexual assault approval rate increased to 60.6% (n=20), in 2016, the rate mostly remained the same at 60.9% (n=14), and in 2017, Crown Counsel appeared to 48 approve 76.9% (n=20) of the sexual assaults recommended for charges. There were 41 individuals either faced additional charges or saw their matter proceed in the court system by way of new charge, with assault being the most frequent instance of such occurrences. Discussion Issue 1 Sexual assaults reported by the time of day appeared strongly consistent year to year and most frequently occur during peak afternoon and morning ridership hours. TransLink 2011 ridership demographic data showed that travel to and from work or post-secondary school is the primary purpose of travel for adults aged 18 to 64, and peak ridership hours were at 08:00 and 15:00 hours respectively (TransLink, 2011). It should not be surprising that sexual assaults reported to the Metro Vancouver Transit Police are consistent with the time of day for peak sexual offending on other systems (Stringer, 2007; Caccato & Paz, 2017). Conversely, across Canada, women who go out in the evening 21 times or more in a month are four times more likely to be sexually assaulted than those who go out 10 times or less (Cotter & Conroy, 2017). The findings from this study and other studies about sexual offending on transit systems (Stringer, 2007; Caccato & Paz, 2017) indicate that the temporal risk of sexual assault is not generalizable to transit environments as it appears that travelling during rush hour periods increases one’s risk of sexual assault. Age appears to be a risk factor in reported sexual assaults as 70% of all victims were under the age of 29, and 40% of all reported victims are between 18 and 24 years old, while across Canada, 47% of self-reported sexual assault victims were aged 15 to 24 (Cotter & Conroy, 2017). There were also seasonal patterns in sexual assault reporting as reporting 49 peaked in May each year and in July in four out of the five study years. Ceccato and Paz (2017) also found that sexual assaults rose in June and July on the Sao Paulo Metro system in Brazil. However, they noted their findings were not tested longitudinally. The findings in this paper are important when deciding on when to conduct public awareness about sexual offending, and what demographics to target. Gekoski et al. (2015) discussed the importance of transit authorities conducting information campaigns to raise awareness of sexual offending on transit and to encourage reporting incidents to police. With age as a factor in reported sexual assaults on transit and in self-reported sexual assaults across Canada, it becomes crucial for transit authorities to target young women as a key audience for information campaigns to increase awareness or reporting of sexual offences. One opportunity is to partner with high schools and post-secondary institutions to deliver information about sexual offending and identify opportunities to facilitate sexual assault reporting. The use of technology can also assist to promote sexual assault reporting and to distribute public awareness information. Findings in this paper were that technology such as an SMS text reporting application and online features such as customer feedback forms contributed to 16% of all sexual assault reports made the MVTP. Gekoski et al. (2015) recommended that transit authorities make use of new technology to facilitate sexual assault reporting. One opportunity for transit authorities is to use technology solutions that allow persons to report a crime in a language other than English. According to Statistics Canada data, Vancouver is one of three Canadian cities that account for over half of all immigrants and recent immigrants to Canada reside, and one in five residents in Vancouver are foreign born 50 (Statistics Canada, 2017). The MVTP indicated on their website that they have engaged in a number of public awareness to promote awareness about sexual harassment. Providing information in key non-English languages to residents of Greater Vancouver can help diversify the MVTP’s message and reach a greater audience. However, it then becomes important to cater to complainants who may have trouble reporting a sexual assault in English. There may be opportunity to include language reporting features into MVTP and TransLink website-based feedback forms. One word of caution when it comes to implementing technology solutions is that implementing automated messages to expedite responses to complainants could be perceived negatively as many women reported they view automated responses to mean their complaints are not significant (Loukaitou-Sideris, 2015). Victim reporting behaviour to the Metro Vancouver Transit Police revealed that over 70% of victims either reported to police by phone or in person to a transit staff member despite an SMS text reporting service introduced in 2013; with one in three incidents were reported to transit staff. Such findings support arguments about the importance of police or transit staff presence to facilitate and increase sexual assault reporting (Natarajan et al., 2017; Stringer, 2007, Transport for London, 2015; Ceccato & Paz, 2017). When a choice is available, the public appears to view the presence of police more favourably than other security officer options (Rowland & Coupe, 2014). Police officers on foot patrol are viewed as more approachable and in a more positive light than officers in a police vehicle (Simpson, 2017). Research on women’s safety on transit argued that women prefer staffing solutions over technology solutions (Loukaitou-Sideris & Fink, 2009; Levin, 2015) and this may offer insight as to why reporting 51 sexual assaults to transit personnel was more common than a technology solution like text reporting. Block and Davis (1996) found that some Chicago neighbourhoods were more prone to robberies than others, while Adams, Herrmann, and Felson (2015) found in New York that a transit station in proximity to a secondary school coincided with weekday afternoon robberies near the transit station. Adams, Herrmann, and Felson (2015) also found in Houston, Texas, a park with a little to no amenities near a transit station increased the likelihood of a violent crime happening in any given park. Some bus routes and SkyTrain Stations appear to be more prone to sexual assault than others, according to incidents reported to the MVTP. Three bus routes stood out regarding the frequency of reported incidents: route 319, route 99b, and route 49. Regarding stations where sexual assaults were reported, Broadway Commercial Station was notably the most frequent station location. There appears to be a relationship between buses with a high frequency of sexual assault reports and SkyTrain Stations with high rates of reported sexual assault. For example, Broadway Commercial Station had the highest number of reported sexual assaults compared to any other station. Broadway Commercial Station is also a terminus stop for the 99b, which travels to UBC. Further, women aged 18-24 account for 40.4% of all reported sexual assault victims while most reported incidents occurred during peak daytime travel consistent with mobility patterns for travelling to work and school. The other noted bus routes also have connections to the broader environment when it comes to reported sexual assaults. Route 49 departs from Metrotown Station with a notably higher rate of reported sexual assaults and travels to UBC. Metrotown Station is also connected to the current largest 52 shopping centre in BC (Metropolis Mall at Metrotown). Route 319 departs from Scott Road Station, which also has a notably higher rate of reported sexual assaults. Route 16 has a terminus stop at Waterfront Station, which is the largest, multi-modal transit station in the region, located in Downtown Vancouver. It appears crucial to understand sexual assault on transit with the broader environment in mind as various modes of transit, shopping centres, parks, and mixed land use structures can all filter into transit stations. Issue 2 In BC, the clearance rates for level 13 sexual assaults are as follows; 56.3% in 2013, 53.4% in 2014, 57.2% in 2015, 51.5% in 2016; that combines for an average of 54.6% over four years (Ministry of Public Safety, 2017:5). The year to year and average clearance rates for police in BC reflect findings from the Juristat report that in sexual assaults, over half the offenders are known to the victim. The cleared by charge rates, when police submit a report to Crown Counsel, in BC also appear to reflect the rate that victims know their offenders. In BC, the cleared by charge rates against all reported sexual offences were 50.2% in 2013, 47.4% in 2014, 50.7% in 2015, and 45.5% in 2016 (Ministry of Public Safety, 2017). When compared to clearance rates, police in BC cleared a case by a charge on average in 88% of cases when a suspect was identified. Across Canada, 43% of all reported sexual assaults resulted in charged laid while 74% of sexual assaults were cleared by a charge when a suspect was identified between 2009 and 2014 (Rotenberg, 2017). Across Canada, sexual 3 Level 1 sexual assaults refer to section 271 of the Canadian Criminal Code as any assault that is sexual in nature. Level 1 sexual assaults do not include incidents with a weapon, when bodily harm occurred, or when a victim’s life was endangered (Cotter & Conroy, 2017). 53 assaults where a charge was laid proceeded to court in 49% of cases, with 55% of cases in court that retained a sexual assault charge resulted in a conviction (Rotenberg, 2017). Unlike many police officers in Canada, police officers in BC cannot lay a charge and must submit a report to Crown Counsel recommending charges against a suspect. During pre-screening, Crown Counsel may deny a recommended charge because they deem the evidence as insufficient to find the accused guilty beyond a reasonable doubt, which acts as a method to filter out cases with a lower likelihood of conviction (Rotenberg, 2017). Comparing court outcomes for police agencies may not be appropriate. Rotenberg, (2017) found that across Canada and when compared to physical assaults, attrition was a bigger factor in sexual assaults not going to court after a suspect was identified. Factors that influenced attrition were cases were resolved through diversion or alternative to court. Other attrition factors noted were that victims may decide they do not want to go to trial, or victims may ask Crown to withdraw the charge. Comparing clearance rates or similar data among police agencies should be done with caution as reporting practices among police services can differ substantially, which can significantly impact clearance rates or related data (Ministry of Public Safety, 2017). Case in point, sexual assaults reported to the Metro Vancouver Transit Police appear to be exclusively acts of strangers as the victims did not report any relationship to the offender in the CAD information reviewed by the researcher. The MVTP are at a significant disadvantage compared to other police forces when it comes to identifying sexual assault suspects yet still managed to identify a suspect or person of interest in over half of reported sexual assaults. 54 A national newspaper outlet called The Globe and Mail also argued that reports to police across Canada are categorised differently by police agency. The Globe and Mail sent out 250 freedom of information requests to all Canadian police services requesting data for unfounded sexual assault and unfounded physical assault files from 2010 to 2014. The unfounded rate was determined by comparing the number of reported sexual assaults to the number of sexual assaults deemed unfounded. The results were that across Canada 19% of all reported sexual assaults were deemed unfounded while in BC the average unfounded rate was 11% (Globe & Mail, 2017). The MVTP categorised 16 reported sexual assaults as unfounded between 2013 and 2017. Adding unfounded and unsubstantiated sexual assaults to the MVTP sexual assault files (n=470) between 2013 and 2017 results in the MVTP having a 3.4% unfounded sexual assault rate. Many of the sexual assault cases reported to the MVTP were deemed unfounded because the complainant later advised the police that the alleged incident did not occur. Rather than compare court outcomes, police agencies can look to compare how they cater to victims of crime. In sexual assault cases, few sexual assaults (14%) involve a weapon, and fewer sexual assaults caused physical injury to a victim (7%) (Conroy & Cotter, 2017). In the five study years, there was one sexual assault reported to the Metro Vancouver Transit Police that was UCR categorised as causing bodily harm or with a weapon. The Canadian Criminal Code defines a sexual assault as: “265 (1) A person commits an assault when (a) without the consent of another person, he applies force intentionally to that other person, directly or indirectly; (b) he attempts or threatens, by an act or a gesture, to apply force to another person, if he has, or causes that other person to believe on reasonable grounds that he has, present ability to effect his purpose; or 55 (c) while openly wearing or carrying a weapon or an imitation thereof, he accosts or impedes another person or begs.” By the Criminal Code definition of assault, sexual assaults can still be violent without causing injury to a victim. In the 2014 Canadian survey of self-reported sexual assault victims, 35% of victims reported feeling angry after the incident, while 21% felt upset, confused or frustrated, and 25% of victims reported they had trouble completing daily activities after the incident (Conroy & Cotter, 2017:14). Further, the survey asked four questions from the Primary Care Post Traumatic Stress Disorder Screening tool, which found 15% of victims experienced three or more long-term psychological consequences. The two most common responses were trying not to think about the incident and avoiding situations that remind the victim of the incident (Conroy & Cotter, 2017:15). Whether a person experiences trauma or not often depends on the individual’s resiliency. Factors influencing resiliency are including emotional regulation capacity, being able to face fears, certain personality traits, use of adaptive coping strategies, and the ability to harness social support, among others, all contribute to a person’s resiliency (Horn, Charney, & Feder, 2016). However, Tolin and Foa (2006) conducted a meta-analysis study of the influence of gender in potentially traumatic events (PTE) and found that men experienced more PTE’s than women. The study found women suffered more sexual assault and child sexual abuse than men, and that women were more likely than men to experience symptoms consistent with PTSD. It is essential that agencies who respond to victims of crime be trauma-informed. Trauma is expressed individually and many victims experiencing trauma have trouble 56 verbalising their experience (Randall, 2010). Randall, (2010) reviewed recent law reforms in Canada and posed a theoretical argument that the changes did not do enough to protect sexual assault victims from forms of victim blaming such as expecting victims to fight off their offender and expecting victims to be visibly upset as linked to their credibility. It is vital for Criminal Justice professionals to understand that trauma causes individuals to relive their experienced when triggered (Randall & Haskell, 2013) and that their memories of an incident can be highly fragmented and incomplete, which may cause problems with a victim's statement later in court (Randall, 2010; Van der Kolk, 2015). Implementing trauma-informed practices into policy and procedure is a challenge for any police department. Police are tasked with obtaining accurate, detailed, and timely information from witnesses and or victims that could help identify a suspect and prevent further offences. While identifying suspects in one aspect of an investigation, so too is obtaining a thorough statement from a victim. Randall and Haskell (2013) argue that a trauma-informed framework assists in understanding why the criminal justice process may be difficult for victims and what support they may need to move through it. A trauma-informed approach can help victims of sexual assault develop a meaningful narrative about the event through a safe and respectful environment, which can ensure that the victim is better understood. Conclusion In 2013, the MVTP committed to reducing sexual offending as an organisational priority. In response, the MVTP conducted several campaigns designed to raise awareness about sexual offences on transit and encourage reporting to police (MVTP, 2013; MVTP, 2014; MVTP, 2015). The findings related to spatial-temporal patterns of reported sexual assaults are have 57 implications for transit authorities when it comes to deciding when to conduct awareness campaigns and how to deploy certain transit personnel. It is important for transit authorities to provide information to protect passengers and encourage reporting offences. The response to reports from victims then becomes important, and in this study, the response to victims who report sexual assault. This study found that sexual assault reports made to the MVTP were treated seriously and the subsequent investigations led to persons of interest or suspects being identified in over half of all reports, which was significant finding considering sexual assaults on public transit are almost always committed by strangers. Further, approximately two-thirds (66%) of all identified suspects were recommended to Crown Counsel for a sexual assault criminal charge against the suspect. The year by year ratio of suspects identified to sexual assault charges remained consistent across all five years with the two highest rates being 66.6% in 2016 and 68.4% in 2017. The most notable finding was that the Crown Counsel’s approval rate for recommended sexual assault charges increased in four of the last five years to reach 76.9% in 2017. 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