The Dangers of Travel—Banditry on the Roads: The Bibliometric Study of the Retrospective Literature

Abstract

Since the dawn of time, one of the main barriers to travel has been the fear of leaving one’s place of residence and travelling into a foreign unknown and dangerous space. However, at the same time, firmly rooted in human nature is the desire to know and experience travel, this archetypal inner need is the motive for undertaking travel. In the past, in ancient times, it was difficult to travel safely, not always succeeding in avoiding dangerous areas and being among the friendly inhabitants of distant countries. In modern times, too, travel is dangerous and no traveler can have the comfort of carefree travel until the end. This work has the character of scholarly reconnaissance and touches on selected historical threads related to banditry on the roads in the old days. This work deals with the methodology of bibliographic information retrieval using modern search methods for the expansion and accumulation of knowledge on the criminal risks of the commuter in ancient times from antiquity to the 19th century period. The main purpose of the study was to compare existing data already obtained from autopsies with those to be obtained using Google Scholar and the EBSCO databases. Available research articles were searched for using the following keywords: history of tourism, cultural tourism, dangers of travelling, travel dangers, robbery, highwaymen, bandits, robbers. The goal was also to find qualitative studies concerning the outlined areas. This article aims to show the technology of performing a comparative literature review on the subject of the dangers of travel in a historical context. To achieve this goal, the authors used the following methods: the historical method, the historical fact-finding method, the comparative method, and the method of literature analysis and criticism. The research of the second stage yielded very interesting records for the keywords bandits—131,000; cultural tourism—45,000; travel dangers—311; tourism history—7460; and travel dangers—135.