50 cases of sexual assault and harassment by Didi drivers in four years, as well as derivative rape
CCTV News:The unusual attention to the safety of Didi passengers this time is not only because of the questionable behavior of Didi in this case, but also because this is not the first time. Three months ago, almost the same tragedy seemed to be in front of us. On May 5 this year, Li, a girl from Zhengzhou, called a ride back to the city through Didi after get off work, but was unexpectedly killed by the driver. Three months, two murders, this is just the tip of the iceberg of criminal cases involving Didi drivers. In May 2017, there was a case of Didi driver killing and molesting female passengers in Chongqing. Didi driver was sentenced to death and suspended for two years. The sentence has now come into effect.
At least 50 cases in 4 years, all victims were women
According to incomplete statistics, in the past four years, there have been at least 50 cases of sexual assault and harassment by Didi drivers publicly reported by the media and handled by relevant court departments, including 2 cases of intentional homicide, 19 cases of rape, 9 cases of forced indecency, 5 cases of administrative punishment, and 15 cases of sexual harassment that have not been filed, involving 50 drivers, and 53 victims are women.
Judge: Beijing alone screened and punished 24 criminal cases involving Didi drivers
In response to this problem, on May 14 this year, Beijing Haidian Court Network published an article entitled "Disclosure of the Criminal Situation of Didi Chuxing Owners". The author, Jiang Nan, a judge of Beijing Haidian District People’s Court, said that by inquiring historical cases in the trial business system and China Judgment Document Network, it can be found that since 2014, there have been far more criminal cases involving Didi platform than the public is aware of.
Jiang Nan, Judge of the Second Criminal Division of the People’s Court of Haidian District, Beijing: "Within the scope of Beijing, we have limited that this criminal case must occur in the process of business performance, that is to say, either you are a full-time driver of Didi, in the process of operation, or Didi’s Hitch driver is in the process of fulfilling the platform order. Then the last criminal case we screened out within the scope of Beijing is 24."
According to Judge Jiang Nan, in terms of the number of cases, the largest number of these 24 cases were theft cases, accounting for nearly half of the number. There were two cases of rape, forced indecent assault and other sexual assaults each.
Jiang Nan, Judge of the Second Criminal Division of the People’s Court of Haidian District, BeijingWhat is it?"Such cases all took place in the summer, from June to September, and the crime time was between midnight and early morning, that is, between 11:00 and 5:00 in the morning."
At the same time, Judge Jiang Nan found that according to this statistic, the proportion of sexual assault cases on Didi platforms was not significantly higher than that of ordinary cruise taxis.
Jiang Nan, Judge of the Second Criminal Division of the People’s Court of Haidian District, Beijing: "It is the same as the traditional one where we call cruise car taxis, including black cars. You can’t say that the number of crimes on its platform is relatively high. However, it has a more obvious feature that such cases are indeed concentrated in hitchhiking, that is, three of the four cases are hitchhiking drivers, and one is express driver. So at least in Didi’s business model, the risk of hitchhiking is indeed relatively high. And it also shows that in the process of hitchhiking management, there may indeed be such measures that we can do some more work to try to reduce the crime rate."
In the process of sorting out the cases, Judge Jiang Nan found that there were also cases of sexual assault derived from the Didi platform.
Jiang Nan, Judge of the Second Criminal Division of the People’s Court of Haidian District, Beijing"What do you mean by derivative rape? That is to say, I, the passenger, met the perpetrator for the first time, that is, in the process of fulfilling the order, the first ride, the first express, he did not rape, but the two established a social relationship through this kind of transaction, and then the second time they met, the rape occurred. This kind of case also involves two rides and two express trains."
During the combing, Judge Jiang Nan also found that there were indeed omissions in the platform’s verification of registered drivers, and some drivers with criminal convictions were verified through the identity of the Didi platform and engaged in related operational activities.
Jiang Nan, Judge of the Second Criminal Division of the People’s Court of Haidian District, Beijing"There are indeed some drivers who have this serious criminal record, such as intentional injury, who have passed the registration. This is the first point. The second point is that it is true that we found that drivers with traffic accident and dangerous driving convictions have passed the review. The third point may be that there are some drivers with economic crimes, such as contract fraud, fraud, and extortion. He passed the registration within a very short period of time, that is to say, he just got out of prison. It may be one year or two years, and he did not pass one of our default tests, which is the assessment level for his personal danger reduction. This shows that Didi has indeed made some improvements in driver review."
It can be seen that in the frequent criminal cases involving Didi in recent years, the Didi platform must at least bear the responsibility for lax review. What other responsibilities does Didi need to bear?
Chen Yinjiang, Deputy Secretary-General of the Consumer Rights Protection Law Research Association of the China Law Society"I think this kind of vicious incident has appeared continuously, and even this kind of vicious incident has appeared during the rectification period. Then I think the relevant departments should investigate its administrative responsibility. I think this should be based on the current flawed information. There should be no big problem, right?