• The Journal of the Korea Contents Association
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• v.12 no.3
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• pp.190-205
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• 2012

The purpose of the paper is to provide policy suggestions for effectively tackling subway crimes, based on the UK and USA's crime control strategies and systems of subway crimes. The paper attempts to analyze the characteristics of subway crimes in Seoul Subways, and discovers that many of the crimes on the subways are basically 'opportunistic' crimes. In particular, crime statistics of Seoul Subways clearly show that sexual-related crimes are on the sharp increase. In this context, it is of great essence that official vigilance functions should be strengthened in order to eliminate crime opportunities in Seoul Subways. Based on such an analysis - in particular, focusing on official surveillance and response capabilities of subway passengers - the paper finally presents policy recommendations as follows: 1) an increase in the number of police officers of the Subway Police Squad, 2) an increase in the number of CCTV cameras and their effective use, 3) the development of subway riders' defence abilities, 4) strong law enforcement against minor disorder offences based on zero-tolerance policing, and 5) the reinforcement of community partnerships.