Although this will be a simple and short chapter it will break new ground. Our aim is to answer some fundamental and often asked questions about public rudeness in a systematic way. How often do people encounter it? What is it? Where does it happen? Who does it? Is it deliberate or accidental? Who experiences victimization? Using some basic statistics we will be able to draw up a portrait of the kinds of events and people that are to be found in the world of everyday incivility. We can start with the most basic issue of all. What is logically needed for an incivil encounter with a rude stranger to take place in public? The answer is simple. There are three components: first, there must be an action interpreted as incivil that occurs in a public setting; second, this is committed by a stranger, either by accident or deliberately; third, it is experienced by a self-described victim. Here we look at each of these in turn. In effect, we will describe what happened and where, who did it and to whom.

The rude event

First, how prevalent are encounters with rude strangers? The ELIAS data show that about a third of respondents reported a rude event during the past month (508 of 1,621 respondents, or 31 per cent). As one might expect, the likelihood of encountering this type of incivility is substantially higher than more invasive interpersonal events such as crime victimizations.