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This article examines women's fear of crime. Through an examination of current attempts to address women's fear of crime, it is argued that women's anxiety about danger is largely a fear of men and reflects women's location in a gendered world. Confronting women's fear means confronting the danger women face at the hands of their partners, acquaintances, clients, and coworkers, as well as other potential violence from men inside and outside the home. In contrast, government advice tries to assuage women's fear by suggesting that women adopt individually managed precautionary strategies to minimize encounters with male strangers. Good lighting, good transport, adequate child care, decent education, safe houses, and safe relationships—one without the others is inadequate to address women's needs and, by extension, women's fear of crime.

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Citation: Hohl, K., Bradford, B. & Stanko, E. (2010). Influencing trust and confidence in the Metropolitan Police: results from an experiment testing the effect of leaflet-drops on public opinion. British Journal of Criminology, 50(3), pp. 491-513. doi: 10.1093/bjc/azq005 This is the accepted version of the paper.This version of the publication may differ from the final published version. Enhancing trust and confidence has moved to the centre of policing policy in England and Wales. The association between direct encounters with police officers and confidence in the police is wellestablished. But is it possible for the police to increase confidence among the general population including those people who do not routinely come into direct contact with police officers? This paper presents the findings from a quasi-randomised experiment conducted on population representative samples in seven London wards that assessed the impact of a leaflet drop on public perceptions of policing. The results provide strong evidence of an improvement in overall confidence, and in perceptions of police-community engagement, specifically. The leaflets also appear to have had a buffering effect against declines in public assessments of police effectiveness. The findings support the idea that public trust and confidence can be enhanced by direct police communication of this type. Permanent