Living in Fear

Abstract

While urbanisation has always been welcomed as a driver to economic amelioration, it has also been criticised for raising expectations and complicating the lives of urban residents. With urban development, wellbeing is often compromised as income disparity increases, quality of life decreases. Of late, crime has been a major concern. Criminal activities have eroded the sense of urban wellbeing and caused the desertion of neighbourhoods. While the Malaysian government tries to achieve sustainable urban development by containing urban sprawl, crime is undoing these efforts. Interviews with residents in crime-prone areas show that many are increasingly threatened by criminal activities in their neighbourhoods and have shown high tendencies to move out of the neighbourhoods. Steps to contain this problem is by having neighbourhood-level security measures as well as heightened involvement in community safety initiatives