Power of the eyes: deterring sexual harassment in Tokyo subways using images of watchful eyes

Kiki K. Chu

Behavioural Public Policy, 2022, vol. 6, issue 4, 674-685

Abstract: Sex crime in subways poses an ever-present threat to Japanese commuters. This paper proposes a simple and viable adjunct to the current tactics by harnessing the potential of the watching eyes effect to deter sexual harassment. It attempts to observe the human biological sensitivity to gaze and to explore its application to the specific Japanese context where powerful informal control exists. The paper also identifies the possible advantages and limitations of such measure, with the goal of stimulating more discussion over evidence-based behavioural interventions in deterring crimes. A tentative proposal is composed to summarize and demonstrate a number of behaviourally informed suggestions regarding the practical implementation and configuration of the proposed measure.

Date: 2022
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.cambridge.org/core/product/identifier/ ... type/journal_article link to article abstract page (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:cup:bpubpo:v:6:y:2022:i:4:p:674-685_8

Access Statistics for this article

More articles in Behavioural Public Policy from Cambridge University Press Cambridge University Press, UPH, Shaftesbury Road, Cambridge CB2 8BS UK.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Kirk Stebbing ().