A top concern for New York City subway riders was having a purse or wallet snatched. Now, they may be more worried about a sudden attack, says the New York Times. The nature of crime in the subway has become far more unpredictable, even as the number of violent incidents remains low, says a report released on Friday. In 2023, for the first time in nearly two decades, the number of felony assaults in the subway system was greater than the number of robberies, according to an analysis of crime statistics by Vital City, a think tank. The change signals a rise in impulsive violence and a move away from crimes motivated by monetary gain, the report found. It reflected a trend in overall crime across the city, which saw a spike in the number of felony assaults in 2024, as most other crime categories decreased.
Last year in the transit system, there were 561 felony assaults, defined as an attack in which a deadly weapon is used or a serious injury results. That number was more than triple what it was in 2009, when 150 felony assaults were reported. In 2006, robberies and assaults occurred at nearly the same rate, said Elizabeth Glazer, a founder of Vital City and a former criminal justice adviser under Mayor Bill de Blasio. In recent years, and particularly since the pandemic, violence in the subway has increasingly been driven by animus, frayed nerves and erratic behavior, she said. “That flip is everything,” Glazer said, and it can only partly be explained by the growing homelessness and mental health crises in the city, she said. The rise reflects a national trend, said Jens Ludwig of the University of Chicago Crime Lab. “This is something we’re seeing all over the place, after the pandemic,” he said. “You used to not see tons of videos of people getting into fist fights on planes.”