“Please refrain from locking your bags”: theft from passengers’ checked-in luggage at US airports

Abstract

Air travel is one of the few situations in which individuals are encouraged to refrain from securing their valuables to facilitate screening, thereby providing an opportunity to some airport employees to use the privileged access offered by their jobs to steal from passengers’ luggage. The goal of this research is to analyze whether some US airports experience more theft by employees from passengers’ luggage than others, and to understand why, using the risky facilities framework (Eck et al. in Imagination for Crime Prevention. Crime Prevention Studies, Criminal Justice Press, Monsey, 2007). Data on passengers’ claims to the Transportation Security Administration in 2009 were used. Results show that, contrary to what is usually depicted in the media, smaller airports experience higher theft rates than larger airports, and could therefore constitute vulnerable points of entry into the aviation industry. Practical implications of this research are discussed.