Although research consistently shows that women feel unsafe in a variety of situations, the social sources of these perceptions have not been clearly identified. This article examines, theoretically and empirically, the influence of sexual harassment on perceptions of safety among women. Because perceptions of safety among women are largely related to fears of sexual victimization, sexual harassment, particularly when it involves strangers, should indicate sexual vulnerability and typify particular contexts as dangerous and threatening. Using data from a national sample of Canadian women, the authors first examine the prevalence of stranger and nonstranger sexual harassment and then examine their influence on perceptions of safety. The findings indicate that stranger harassment is more prevalent and more extensive than nonstranger harassment and that stranger harassment more strongly influences fear of victimization. The implications of these findings are discussed.

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Students commonly hold erroneous notions of a “post-racial” world and individualistic worldviews that discount the role of structure in social outcomes. Jointly, these two preconceived beliefs can be powerful barriers to effective teaching of racial segregation: Students may be skeptical that racial segregation continues to exist, and abstract statistical representations or other sociological research may not be sufficiently vivid or compelling to dissuade students from their prior beliefs. In this article, we present an exercise that uses an interactive map of racial residence patterns to help students see evidence of racial segregation for themselves. Qualitative and quantitative findings, from testing this exercise in Introduction to Sociology courses at two distinct schools by separate instructors, suggest that this exercise is effective at helping college students grasp the extent of racial segregation in America.