“There goes the fear”: feelings of safety at home and in the neighborhood: The role of personal, social, and service factors

Abstract

Safety has been shown to be an important contributor to mental well‐being and is often identified as a key element of sustainable communities. Drawing on the fear of crime literature this study investigates the determinants of feelings of indoor and outdoor safety for people living in deprived areas, using both cross‐sectional and longitudinal samples from household surveys in 15 communities in Glasgow. Across the different models social cohesion, satisfaction with services, and perceived empowerment emerge as the most robust predictors of feeling very safe indoors and outside. Our findings suggest useful extensions to several theoretical models of the fear of crime: The vulnerability hypothesis should include social vulnerability more generally; environmental models should focus on local amenities and services as well as on disorder; and social–psychological models should consider not only informal social control but also resident empowerment in relation to housing and neighborhood issues.

Neighborhood sexual violence moderates women's perceived safety in urban neighborhoods

“…Previous literature had shown that outside of their home, women generally feel less safe than men, especially in high‐crime urban neighborhoods (Allik & Kearns, ; Brunton‐Smith & Sturgis, ; Haynie, ; Lane & Meeker, ; Lane et al., ; Schafer et al., ; Warr, ). Yet our study did not show this effect.…”

“…Neighborhood perceptions of safety can serve as a proxy for certain neighborhood conditions such as crime, exposure to violence, and concentrated poverty (Drakulich, ; Ross & Mirofsky, ; Rassmussen, Aber, & Bhana, ; Thomas, Caldwell, Jagers, & Flay, ). Neighborhood safety has also been found to be negatively associated with health and well‐being (Burdette, Wadden, Wadden, & Whitaker, ; Duncan, Johnson, Molnar, & Azrael, ; Zhang, Eamon, & Zhan, ), and positively associated with favorable perceptions of the neighborhood walking environment (Brown, Perkins, & Brown, ; Foster & Giles‐Corti, ; Mason et al., ), aesthetic quality (Austin, Furr, & Spine, ; Kuo & Sullivan, 1998; Miles, ), and collective efficacy (Allik & Kearns, ; Pearson, Breetzke, & Ivory, ; Thomas, Caldwell, & Jagers, ).…”

“…There is considerable evidence that women report higher threats to personal safety than men, and that this may be due to gender differences between women and men in the fear of crime (Allik & Kearns, ; Hale, ; Haynie, ; Schaefer, Huebner, & Bynum, ; Warr, ). In urban neighborhoods with high rates of crime, women also report less personal safety (Allik & Kearns, ; Brunton‐Smith & Sturgis, ; Rasmussen, Aber, & Bhana, ). Importantly, gender differences in perceptions of neighborhood safety may not be based on victimization or exposure to crime, but simply knowledge of neighborhood crime, particularly violent crime (Drakulich, ; Skogan & Maxfield, ).…”

“…The “vulnerability hypothesis” maintains that women feel less physically able to thwart a potential attack and thus are more concerned about personal safety, including sexual assault (Franklin, Franklin, & Fearn, ; Haynes & Rader, ; Schafer, Huebner, & Bynum, ; Yodanis, ). There is some evidence to support this view, although findings are inconclusive (Allik & Kearns, ; Haynes & Rader, ). A variation of this theory is that men minimize their vulnerability because admitting fear for their safety may threaten traditional conceptualizations of masculinity (Sutton & Farrall, ); thus, men report feeling less vulnerable to physical attack.…”

Citizens’ Positive Safety Perceptions in Public Spaces

“…Safety is often listed as a key element of sustainable communities and an important contributor to people's wellbeing, as lacking safety perceptions can have detrimental effects on individuals' wellbeing (Allik & Kearns, 2017). The safety of citizens is thus a "legitimate goal for public policy" (Ben-Arieh, & Shimon, 2014).…”