Criminologist says Uber's U.S. crime report is "alarming" with sexual assaults on the rise

by Ben Reilly Fri Dec 06, 2019 9:18 pm

More than 3,000 people reported sexual assaults related to Uber rides in the US last year, the ride-hail company said Thursday in a long-awaited report on violence and safety—an average of eight per day. Drivers reported sexual assaults to Uber at roughly the same rate that riders did. The company also said that nine people were murdered and 58 were killed last year in crashes related to the transportation app.
The number of sexual assaults reported to Uber in 2018 rose by 4 percent from a year earlier, the company said. But because there were more Uber trips—1.3 billion last year—the incidence of sexual assault (including nonconsensual touching, kissing, and penetration) fell 16 percent. Uber said it is committed to rolling out features to reduce those numbers.
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“Each of those incidents represents an individual who has undergone a horrific trauma,” Tony West, Uber’s top lawyer, told NBC Nightly News. “But I’m not surprised by those numbers. And I’m not surprised because sexual violence is just much more pervasive in society than I think most people realize.”
The data is difficult to put in context. The other nationwide ride-hailing service, Lyft, has not released similar numbers, though a spokesperson said the company is committed to doing so. Data on assaults and crashes related to taxicabs is only occasionally collected by localities, but there’s no nationwide data on taxi incidents.
Still, one criminologist said that, unlike West, he was surprised by the numbers contained in the Uber safety report, and not in a good way. “It’s highly alarming,” says John Roman, a senior fellow at NORC at the University of Chicago, a social science research organization.

https://www.wired.com/story/criminologist-uber-crime-report-highly-alarming

by Maddog Sat Dec 07, 2019 3:40 pm

https://reason.com/2019/12/06/the-chance-of-your-uber-ride-ending-in-a-rape-is-00002/

It's also important to keep a sense of perspective. Uber facilitated nearly 4 million U.S. trips every day last year, according to the company. In 2017 and 2018, it averaged 3.1 million trips per day. Uber drivers completed a total of 2.3 billion trips over those two years.

Of these billions of trips, only 0.0003 percent included a report of a "critical safety incident," defined as a lethal accident, a physical assault resulting in death, or any sort of sexual assault.

The company defines "sexual assault" as "any physical or attempted physical contact that is reported to be sexual in nature and without the consent of the user. This can include incidents within the taxonomy ranging from Attempted Touching of a Non-Sexual Body Part (e.g., a user trying to touch a person's shoulder in a sexual/romantic way) to Non-Consensual Sexual Penetration."

In 2017–2018, Uber trips with critical safety incidents resulted in 126 fatalities, including:

107 deaths from motor vehicle accidents (across 97 crashes), with about one fifth of the fatalities being Uber riders, one fifth Uber drivers, and the rest third parties, and
19 deaths from physical assaults, including the deaths of eight riders, seven drivers, and four third parties.

by Original Quill Sat Dec 07, 2019 3:55 pm

Maddog wrote:https://reason.com/2019/12/06/the-chance-of-your-uber-ride-ending-in-a-rape-is-00002/

It's also important to keep a sense of perspective. Uber facilitated nearly 4 million U.S. trips every day last year, according to the company. In 2017 and 2018, it averaged 3.1 million trips per day. Uber drivers completed a total of 2.3 billion trips over those two years.

Of these billions of trips, only 0.0003 percent included a report of a "critical safety incident," defined as a lethal accident, a physical assault resulting in death, or any sort of sexual assault.

The company defines "sexual assault" as "any physical or attempted physical contact that is reported to be sexual in nature and without the consent of the user. This can include incidents within the taxonomy ranging from Attempted Touching of a Non-Sexual Body Part (e.g., a user trying to touch a person's shoulder in a sexual/romantic way) to Non-Consensual Sexual Penetration."

In 2017–2018, Uber trips with critical safety incidents resulted in 126 fatalities, including:

107 deaths from motor vehicle accidents (across 97 crashes), with about one fifth of the fatalities being Uber riders, one fifth Uber drivers, and the rest third parties, and
19 deaths from physical assaults, including the deaths of eight riders, seven drivers, and four third parties.

Red, in this and other posts you seem to be polishing Uber's apple. Now you come forward with tons of statistical details that sound quite professional--like someone has made a concerted effort to build a defense.

Are you affiliated with Uber?

by Maddog Sat Dec 07, 2019 5:04 pm

And living in wealthier Western countries doesn’t necessarily make you safer with 53 percent of women saying they feel unsafe on a railway platform at night.

In August this year, Plan International and Monash University teamed up and asked women in Melbourne to map where they felt safe and unsafe while traveling on the city’s public transport network. The resulting map showed 417 locations where women had had negative experiences — and only 162 where women had felt positively about a bus, train or tram.

“This research highlights the devastating effects of being sexually harassed or sexually assaulted while using public transport,” Dr. Nicole Kalms, who was involved with the project, said.

https://nypost.com/2017/10/23/public-transportation-is-a-nightmare-for-women-everywhere/

Meanwhile, on the far more dangerous public transportation...................

by Maddog Sat Dec 07, 2019 6:52 pm

“The lack of personal security, or the inability to use public transport without the fear of being victimized — either while traveling on board a public transport mode, walking to or from the transit facility or stop, or waiting at a bus, transit stop, or station platform — can substantially decrease the attractiveness of public transit,” the report states.

https://nypost.com/2017/10/23/public-transportation-is-a-nightmare-for-women-everywhere/

If you are worried about uber rides and not the substantially more dangerous mode of transportation. provided by the state, you're suffering from cognitive dissonance.

by Maddog Sat Dec 07, 2019 6:56 pm

https://www.theguardian.com/sustainable-business/2017/jan/13/uber-lyft-cars-public-transport-cities-commuting

And the real reason that governments have declared war on Uber.

It's cutting into public transportation. Same way Fed Ex is better than the post office.

by Ben Reilly Sat Dec 07, 2019 8:54 pm

Maddog wrote:https://www.theguardian.com/sustainable-business/2017/jan/13/uber-lyft-cars-public-transport-cities-commuting

And the real reason that governments have declared war on Uber.

It's cutting into public transportation. Same way Fed Ex is better than the post office.

First off, my article's source wasn't the government, but Uber itself.

I think if people are getting attacked on Uber rides, that's a problem that should be addressed, isn't it?

This story has nothing to do with any government trying to put Uber out of business -- and to take a page from your book, the vast majority of governments are doing no such thing.

by Maddog Sat Dec 07, 2019 9:48 pm

Ben Reilly wrote:
Maddog wrote:https://www.theguardian.com/sustainable-business/2017/jan/13/uber-lyft-cars-public-transport-cities-commuting

And the real reason that governments have declared war on Uber.

It's cutting into public transportation. Same way Fed Ex is better than the post office.

First off, my article's source wasn't the government, but Uber itself.

I think if people are getting attacked on Uber rides, that's a problem that should be addressed, isn't it?

This story has nothing to do with any government trying to put Uber out of business -- and to take a page from your book, the vast majority of governments are doing no such thing.

I didn't say your source was the government. But there are governments that keep trying to make things more difficult for Uber, with new regulations. They don't like the competition.

I think if people are getting attacked anywhere, that's a problem. But I think ignoring one place where they get attacked in far greater numbers and focusing on far safer areas is a bit silly, isn't it?

by Maddog Sat Dec 07, 2019 9:49 pm

Lets cut to the chase Ben. Where are women safer? On an Uber ride or a bus ride?

by Ben Reilly Sun Dec 08, 2019 6:35 am

Maddog wrote:Lets cut to the chase Ben. Where are women safer? On an Uber ride or a bus ride?

I have no idea. I don't have any sort of pro-bus agenda here.

by Original Quill Sun Dec 08, 2019 12:40 pm

Ben Reilly wrote:
Maddog wrote:Lets cut to the chase Ben. Where are women safer? On an Uber ride or a bus ride?

I have no idea. I don't have any sort of pro-bus agenda here.

Just on instinct--and apparently by the stats--anyone is safer on a bus (not just women). It is public, electronically monitored and controlled by an authority.

Uber is ungoverned, for the most part, and at best chancy.

by Maddog Sun Dec 08, 2019 2:19 pm

Ben Reilly wrote:
Maddog wrote:Lets cut to the chase Ben. Where are women safer? On an Uber ride or a bus ride?

I have no idea. I don't have any sort of pro-bus agenda here.

Getting an idea would be a good idea. Wink

by Ben Reilly Sun Dec 08, 2019 2:54 pm

Maddog wrote:
Ben Reilly wrote:
Maddog wrote:Lets cut to the chase Ben. Where are women safer? On an Uber ride or a bus ride?

I have no idea. I don't have any sort of pro-bus agenda here.

Getting an idea would be a good idea.

But this story is about sexual assaults on the rise in the Uber platform, not about whether it's safer to ride the bus.

I don't have your agenda so I didn't come prepared with those figures.

by Maddog Sun Dec 08, 2019 3:36 pm

Ben Reilly wrote:
Maddog wrote:

Getting an idea would be a good idea.

But this story is about sexual assaults on the rise in the Uber platform, not about whether it's safer to ride the bus.

I don't have your agenda so I didn't come prepared with those figures.

The story also points out how incredibly safe Uber is when you consider the number of rides vs the incidents.

Although it takes a little digging to get that little nugget of truth.

by Maddog Sun Dec 08, 2019 4:22 pm

So what this article does is take a very safe activity and use shady statistics to amp up fear.

Its perfectly legal but very irresponsible.

It's the same bullshit that conservatives pull when they are trying to scare people about immigrants.

Yes immigrants kill people. Some years they kill more than others. But immigrants always kill people at lower rates than our home grown miscreants.

Criminologist says Uber's U.S. crime report is "alarming" with sexual assaults on the rise

Criminologist says Uber's U.S. crime report is "alarming" with sexual assaults on the rise

Re: Criminologist says Uber's U.S. crime report is "alarming" with sexual assaults on the rise

Re: Criminologist says Uber's U.S. crime report is "alarming" with sexual assaults on the rise

Re: Criminologist says Uber's U.S. crime report is "alarming" with sexual assaults on the rise

Re: Criminologist says Uber's U.S. crime report is "alarming" with sexual assaults on the rise

Re: Criminologist says Uber's U.S. crime report is "alarming" with sexual assaults on the rise

Re: Criminologist says Uber's U.S. crime report is "alarming" with sexual assaults on the rise

Re: Criminologist says Uber's U.S. crime report is "alarming" with sexual assaults on the rise

Re: Criminologist says Uber's U.S. crime report is "alarming" with sexual assaults on the rise

Re: Criminologist says Uber's U.S. crime report is "alarming" with sexual assaults on the rise

Re: Criminologist says Uber's U.S. crime report is "alarming" with sexual assaults on the rise

Re: Criminologist says Uber's U.S. crime report is "alarming" with sexual assaults on the rise

Re: Criminologist says Uber's U.S. crime report is "alarming" with sexual assaults on the rise

Re: Criminologist says Uber's U.S. crime report is "alarming" with sexual assaults on the rise

Re: Criminologist says Uber's U.S. crime report is "alarming" with sexual assaults on the rise