{"id":38695,"date":"2020-11-05T23:22:51","date_gmt":"2020-11-05T18:22:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/techcrunch.com\/?p=2069826"},"modified":"2020-11-06T00:49:59","modified_gmt":"2020-11-05T19:19:59","slug":"study-shows-cities-with-ride-hailing-services-report-lower-rates-of-sexual-assault","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.technologyforyou.org\/study-shows-cities-with-ride-hailing-services-report-lower-rates-of-sexual-assault\/","title":{"rendered":"Study shows cities with ride-hailing services report lower rates of sexual assault"},"content":{"rendered":"

Dr. Min-Seok Pang<\/span> Contributor | <\/span>Dr. Min-Seok Pang is an Associate Professor of Management Information Systems and Milton F. Stauffer Research Fellow at Temple University’s Fox School of Business.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Dr. Jiyong Park<\/span> Contributor | <\/span>Dr. Jiyong Park is an Assistant Professor of Information Systems at the Bryan School of Business and Economics, University of North Carolina at Greensboro.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Since Uber\u2019s<\/a> launch in 2010, ride-hailing has grown to one of the most dominant transportation modes in many cities. Thanks to ride-hailing, travelers no longer need to wave a hand to taxicabs in hope of getting picked up. Even if you are fortunate enough to own a car in a city, you are free from driving after drinking and don\u2019t need to find an elusive parking spot, which often seems to equate to winning a lottery.<\/span><\/p>\n

Along with their exponential growth, however, companies such as Uber and Lyft <\/a> have had to endure a number of criticisms and scandals. One of such crises is that there have been a number of incidents where its drivers committed sexual assault or other crimes. But our research provides a surprising finding: Ride-hailing, in fact, reduces the occurrences of sexual assault.<\/span><\/p>\n

In our article \u201cThe Deterrent Effect of Ride-Sharing on Sexual Assault and Investigation of Situational Contingencies<\/a>,\u201d we analyzed data from New York City in 2015, which include Uber transaction records and crime reports. We found that the more Uber pickups take place in a neighborhood, the less likely it is for a rape incident to be reported in the same area. Our results suggest that a 1% increase in Uber pickups lead to a decrease in reported cases of sexual assault by as many as 48 cases per year in NYC.<\/span><\/p>\n

Ride-hailing drivers can be dangerous people. We\u2019re certainly not saying that they\u2019re not committing crimes \u2014 however, the good people who work for Uber or Lyft might also be helping to keep the innocent away from other potential dangerous people, too.<\/span><\/p>\n

Our in-depth analysis reveals more interesting insights. Specifically, we find that ride-hailing contributes to a greater reduction in rape cases in areas and situations where the transport supply rarely meets the demand, such as:<\/span><\/p>\n