Sense of Place and Feelings of Safety: Examining Young Adults’ Experiences of their Local Environment using Mobile Surveys

Abstract

This study aims to examine feelings of safety and the correlates to feelings of decreased worry toward crime within individuals' proximate environments. Data from adults living in Southeast Queensland (N = 72) were collected using a mobile application. Findings of a thematic analysis of these data suggest that safety perceptions are primarily driven by (a) physical features of the proximate environment, (b) social characteristics of a place, and (c) location familiarity or awareness. This study concludes with a discussion of how these themes may be leveraged to develop more focused fear-reduction strategies that involve modifying features of the physical environment, improving social characteristics of place and increasing knowledge/awareness of place. Extant literature explores why people fear crime and what leads individuals to potential interactions with crime and disorder within their neighborhoods (Farrall et al. 1997; Hale 1996; Jackson 2005). However, there is a dearth of research focusing on specific reasons for feeling safe in one's immediate environment. Researchers' reliance on measuring feelings of "fear" of crime often ignores important physical and social structures that may shape the opposite attitudinal pattern-feelings of safety. This is important because contemporary research examining fear of crime indicates that many individuals are not concerned or worried about crime victimization, and that fear of crime may concentrate within particular areas and at certain times of day (Chataway and Hart 2016). By studying feelings of safety in the proximate environment, researchers may be able to develop more effective interventions for reducing fear of crime in areas/places where it's highly concentrated. To address this shortcoming in our empirical knowledge on safety perceptions in the immediate environment, the current study uses mobile technology to collect data about attitudes toward safety from a sample of adults living in Southeast Queensland, Australia, while they are engaging in their everyday, routine activities. 1 Inductive thematic analysis is used to identify common themes relating to feelings of safety and security in the immediate environments of adults to obtain a better understanding of the perceptual drivers of safety.

The functions of urban design social attributes in creative placemaking: the case of Kuala Lumpur event festivals

“…Place vitality can also be reflected through music, games, shows and dances that enlivened a place, welcomed crowd gathering and provided a sense of security. Additionally, the gatherings increased community involvement that led to the positive perception of a place regarding safety (Chataway, 2020). As such, this study found that the female group had a higher preference for place vitality.…”

Feasibility of gathering momentary and daily assessments of fear of crime using a smartphone application (STUNDA): Methodological considerations and findings from a study among Swedish university students

“…Labhart et al, 2019) and outcomes (e.g. Chataway, 2019), this study aimed to unravel why participation varies within the sample. The statistical analyses revealed that being female, older and a criminology student generally increased the odds of greater participation.…”

“…A recurring phenomenon in experience sampling studies is that compliance rates vary heavily within samples (e.g. Chataway, 2019; Labhart et al, 2019). An interesting question thus involves exploring participant characteristics between those answering many surveys and those answering a few.…”

Everyday life, crime, and fear of crime among adolescents and young adults

“…Since then, there has been a growth in similar studies using smartphone-based experience methods (e.g. Birenboim, 2016Birenboim, , 2018Chataway, 2019;Chataway et al, 2017;2019;Irvin-Erickson et al, 2020;; for a review, see . While based on small-scale studies of pilot character, this research shows that fear of crime can be studied as an everyday phenomenon using smartphone-based experience methods.…”

“…Goldner et al, 2011). Although this methodology was mentioned in relation to fear of crime some time ago , it is not until recently that fear of crime research has come to employ this increasingly popular methodological approach by examining fear of crime as a dynamic feature that varies across space and time (Chataway et al, 2017(Chataway et al, , 2019Irvin-Erickson et al, 2020;; see also Chataway, 2019).…”