The purpose of this study is to deduce implications for criminal justice policy and architectural improvement in subway station for crime prevention based on the comprehensive analysis of the results of crime data analysis, expert interview, field observation, and computer simulation for space analysis.
For this, the checklist was developed for field observation based on the result of existing literature and 6 subway stations were investigated using the checklist developed. To control confounding variables which might affect the risk of crime in subway stations, such as circumstances around the station, users of the subway, transfer system, 6 non-transfer stations which have similar circumstance characteristics, and where there is difference in crime rate, were selected and categorized into 3 groups for investigation. For visibility analysis, the VGA(Visual Graph Analysis) was employed and the SIMULEX was used for simulating how passengers move from platform to ticket gate.
Based on the results of visibility analysis and agent based modelling analysis using VGA, characteristics of the interior spaces which are relatively vulnerable to crime were identified. 1) Spaces where the subway exits are far from the ticket gates or where the massive columns limit the visual accessibility of the passengers, 2) Spaces where the transitional spaces connecting the interior spaces and station exits are relatively narrow, 3) Spaces where the exits are not distributed equally within the station.
The results of simulation using SIMULEX showed that the higher crime rate of the station is correlated with the place where the congestion and crowding occurs. And the architectural design elements of subway station which cause the passenger congestion were summarized as seen below: 1) the number of staircases connecting platform and ticket gate, 2) the amount of area between the ticket gates and the staircases, 3) the size and direction of transitional space, 4) the amount of area of platform, 5) the width of stair and escalator, 6) the distribution of staircases, 7) the location of columns, etc.
In, conclusion, measures of criminal justice and architectural design for crime prevention in subway station were suggested. For example, to prevent sex offenses, installing CCTV around the escalator and widening the escalator so that two passengers stand side by side were suggested. To relieve the passenger congestion, minimizing the number of staircases of each ticket gate connected from platform and providing appropriate amount of area between the ticket gate and the staircases were suggested, and to increase visibility within the station, distributing subway exits equally within the station was suggested.