It is a common crime due to the relative ease of reselling bicycles, which have a large second-hand market.
This makes the crime attractive to those needing to obtain currency quickly, such as people with substance addictions.
Bicycle theft is a common crime committed in areas with high population as well as on college campuses.
[13] A study published in 2012 in PLOS One examined the watching-eye effect as it applied to bicycle theft.
[14] The researchers simply placed clearly visible signage saying "Cycle Thieves: We Are Watching You" (along with the words "Operation Crackdown" and the logo of local police) at locations on a university campus in England that had frequently seen bicycle theft.