Book Review: Smith, M. J., & Cornish, D. B. (Eds.). (2006). Secure and Tranquil Travel: Preventing Crime and Disorder on Public Transport. London: University College London (UCL) Jill Dando Institute of Crime Science. 226 pp

• Author: Sacha Rombouts
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1177/1057567708320313
• Published date: 01 June 2008
• Date: 01 June 2008
• Subject Matter: Articles

The central critique of Murder is the sole reliance on a social constructionist explanation of mur-

der. Statistically, murder is a pathological phenomenon with a low prevalence in community sam-

ples and a low prevalence in criminal samples. Even among cohorts of serious criminal offenders, a

murder is a rare event. In addition, the banal processes that often immediately precede murders are

ubiquitous as are the cultural influences of hegemonic masculinity. Yet almost no one murders. In this

way, psychological explanations of murder—which explore individual-level constructs that may con-

tribute to lethal violence—are likely useful. How many of the 858 murderers in England and Wales

had antisocial personality disorder, how many were psychopathic, how many had other psychiatric

diagnoses, and how many were chronic offenders for whom their murder was the culminating event

in their life of crime. The book tells a story about the sociohistorical ways that we understand mur-

ders and murderers. That story could be bolstered with insights from other perspectives, even mod-

ern psy discourses.

Matt DeLisi

Iowa State University

Smith, M. J., & Cornish, D. B. (Eds.). (2006). Secure and

Tranquil Travel: Preventing Crime and Disorder on Public

Transport. London: University College London (UCL)

Jill Dando Institute of Crime Science. 226 pp.

DOI: 10.1177/1057567708320313

Martha Smith and Derek Cornish have produced a book that effectively synthesizes what is

known about the application of environmental criminology to transport safety in a way that is well

suited for those who are responsible for the prevention of transport-related crime. This book is pri-

marily directed towards practitioners (the authors specify that it is intended for managers of bus, rail,

and underground services), as evidenced by consistent use of the word manual, the fact that the book

is an extension of a previously existing Web-based toolkit, and the structuring of the book as a set

of theory- and research-driven practical strategies for crime reduction on public transport. The

authors draw heavily on rational choice theory and situational crime prevention to emphasize con-

trol of situational factors by managers as a way of deterring potential offenders from committing

crime. In this sense, the book aims to empower managers by giving them insight into offender deci-

sion making and providing practical advice on how to use the environment to affect such decision

making. Derek Cornish and Martha Smith are established experts in the areas of rational choice the-

ory and safety on public transport and as such are well placed to offer informed guidance for how

environmental criminology principles may be specifically applied to transport safety. The authors

also do a good job of demonstrating how the strategy of problem-oriented policing can be used by

practitioners to design empirically sound prevention efforts.

The book is organized in a meaningful fashion with the initial chapters providing an easily under-

standable explanation of relevant criminological principles for the intended layperson. Indeed,

throughout the book, the authors make excellent use of various methods (e.g., case examples, pho-

tographs, breaking up the text with bullet-points, and shaded boxes of text) that will help readers to

navigate their way through the manual. The book’s aesthetic organization will prove attractive to the

target audience, as managers should more easily be able to make the links between environmental

criminology theory, practical suggestions, and the day-to-day realities of their job.

The first chapter provides a good overview of transport systems in the United Kingdom, summarizes

what is known in the empirical literature about transport safety and the 25 situational crime prevention

230 International Criminal Justice Review