This study focused on bus stop crime and sought to identify the environmental attributes that can affect the bus rider's security while at the bus stop. Following the argument of criminologists that certain place characteristics can affect the incidence of crime, the study used direct observation, mapping, interviews, and surveys to examine the physical and social environment around the 10 most crime-ridden bus stops in Los Angeles, as identified from crime data for 1994 and 1995 made available by the transit division of the Los Angeles Metropolitan Transportation Authority. It found an abundance of "negative" environmental attributes and a general lack of "defensible space" elements. It also found that different types of crime tend to occur under different environmental conditions. The use of 4 control cases of low-crime bus stops as matched-pairs with 4 high-crime bus stops in close proximity showed that the low-crime bus stops typically lacked "negative" environmental attributes,
This article appeared in the Journal of the American Planning Association, Vol. 65, No. 4, Autumn 1999.
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