FEAR OF CRIME IN PUBLIC SPACE: PHYSICAL AND SOCIAL ENVIRONMENTAL CONDITIONS
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.21837/pm.v23i39.1921Keywords:
Fear of Crime, Physical Environment, Social Environment, Public Space, MalaysiaAbstract
Fear of crime in urban public space affects the well-being of residents and has detrimental effect on individuals’ behaviour. Thus, this study examines the effect of physical and social environment conditions on fear of crime in Malaysia. Data was collected for nine variables related to fear of crime from sample of 540 adults selected from housing estates every state in Malaysia. Binomial logistic regression analysis technique was used in identifying the odds of fear of crime among the individual attributes for the different dimensions (physical and social environmental conditions). Findings from the study revealed that the odds of fear of crime in deteriorated physical environment condition is three times higher among respondents that are married (Exp(B) = 3.766, p<0.05), two times higher among Malays (Exp(B) = 2.185, p<0.05) compared to other racial groups, and the older adults (Exp(B) = 2.201, p<0.05).
Downloads
References
Abdul Ghani, A. S., Abdul Wahab, H., Ghazali, A. S., & Mohd Azam, S. B. (2021). Contextual and multifactorial influence on perception of safety from crime among selected Malaysians. International Journal of Research in Business and Social Science, 10(8), 2147–4478.
Abdullah, A., Marzbali, M. H., Tilaki, M. J. M. (2019). The role of social control on the relationship between fear of crime and self-rated health in urban neighbourhoods: A case study of Penang, Malaysia. International E-Journal of Advances in Social Sciences, Vol. V(Issue 15).
Ali, L. (2014). Public perception of crime, crime related anxiety, and attitude towards crime and community safety. Journal of Public Security and Safety, Vol. 2(No. 2).
Austin, D. M., Furr, L. A., & Spine, M. (2002). The effects of neighborhood conditions on perceptions of safety. Journal of Criminal Justice, 30, 417–427.
Banks, M. (2005). Spaces of (in)security: Media and fear of crime in a local context. Crime, Media, Culture, 1(2), 169–187.
Bogacka, E. (2020). Safety of urban park users: The case of Poznań, Poland. In Vania and Nalla (Eds.), Crime and Fear in Public Places. Routledge 52 Vanderbilt Avenue, New York, NY 10017.
Burgess, J. (2002). But is it worth taking the risk?: How women negotiate access to urban woodland: A case study. In R. Ainley (Ed.), New frontiers of space, bodies and gender. Routledge, 133–146.
Carmona, M., Heath, T., Oc, T., & Tiesdell, S. (2003). Public places - urban spaces: The dimensions of urban design. Architectural Press.
Castro-Toledo, F. J., Gretenkort, T., Esteve, M., & Miró-Llinares, F. (2020). Fear in 280 characters: A new approach for evaluation of fear over time in cyberspace. In Vania and Nalla (Eds.), Crime and Fear in Public Places. Routledge 52 Vanderbilt Avenue, New York, NY 10017.
Ceccato, V. (2016). Public space and the situational conditions of crime and fear. Int. Crim. Justice Rev., 26(2), 69–79. https://doi.org/10.1177/1057567716639099.
Ceccato, V., & Nalla, M. K. (2020). Crime and Fear in Public Places Towards Safe, Inclusive and Sustainable Cities. Routledge 2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN.
Che Soh, M. B. (2012). Crime and urbanization: Revisited Malaysian case. ASEAN Conference on Environment-Behaviour Studies, Riverside Majestic Hotel, Kuching, Sarawak, Malaysia, 7-8 July 2010. Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences, 42, 291–299.
Chhetri, V. (2015). Women’s safety in public places: Perception, experience, incidence and impact of sexual harassment in public places in Patna – The state capital of Bihar (Azim Premji University). Retrieved from https://equityasia.net/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/Report-on-Women-Safety-in-public-places.pdf
Clarke, R., & Eck, J. (2007). Understanding risky facilities (Tool Guide No. 6). Retrieved from https://popcenter.asu.edu/content/understanding-risky-facilities (accessed 20 January 2024).
Costamagna, F., Lind, R., & Stjernström, O. (2019). Livability of urban public spaces in northern Swedish cities: The case of Umeå. Planning Practice & Research, 34, 131–148.
Cozens, P., Neale, R., Whitaker, J., & Hillier, D. (2003). Managing crime and the fear of crime at railway stations – A case study in South Wales (UK). International Journal of Transport Management, 1, 121–132.
De Donder, L. (2009). Feelings of insecurity in context: Theoretical perspectives for studying fear of crime in late life. International Journal of Economics and Finance, 1, 1–20.
De Donder, L., De Witte, N., Buffel, T., Dury, S., & Verté, D. (2012). Social capital and feelings of unsafety in later life: A study on the influence of social networks, place attachment, and civic participation on perceived safety in Belgium. Research on Aging, 34, 425–448.
Dhillon, M., & Bakaya, S. (2014). Street harassment: A qualitative study of the experiences of young women in Delhi. SAGE Open, 4(3). https://doi.org/10.1177/2158244014543786
Di Masso, A. (2015). Micropolitics of public space: On the contested limits of citizenship as a locational practice. Journal of Social and Political Psychology, 3(2), 63–83. https://doi.org/10.5964/jspp.v3i2.322
Farrall, S., Jackson, J., & Gray, E. (2006). Everyday emotion and the fear of crime: Preliminary findings from experience and expression (ESRC project: Experience and Expression in the Fear of Crime, Working Paper 1). Retrieved from http://www.lse.ac.uk/collections/methodologyInstitute/pdf/JonJackson/E&E_working_paper_1.pdf
Farrall, S. D., Jackson, J., & Gray, E. (2009). Social order and the fear of crime in contemporary times. Oxford University Press.
Freedman, M., & Owens, E. G. (2011). Low-income housing development and crime. Journal of Urban Economics, 70, 115–131.
Gallacher, P. (2005). Everyday spaces: The potential of neighbourhood space. Thomas Telford.
Gholamhosseini, R., Pojani, D., Babiano, I. M., Johnson, L., & Minnery, J. (2018). The place of public space in the lives of Middle Eastern women migrants in Australia. Journal of Urban Design, 24(2), 269–289.
Gordon, M., & Riger, S. (1989). The female fear. Free Press.
Groff, E., & McCord, E. S. (2011). The role of neighborhood parks as crime generators. Security Journal, 25, 1–24.
Hale, C. (1996). Fear of crime: A review of the literature. International Review of Victimology, 4, 79–150.
Hanslmaier, M., Peter, A., & Kaiser, B. (2018). Vulnerability and fear of crime among elderly citizens: What roles do neighborhood and health play? Journal of Housing and the Built Environment, 33, 575–590.
Hilborn, J. (2009). Dealing with crime and disorder in urban parks (Problem-Oriented Guides for Police Response Guide Series, No. 9). U.S. Department of Justice.
Howard, S., Dryden, J., & Johnson, B. (1999). Childhood resilience: Review and critique of literature. Oxford Review of Education, 25(3), 307–323.
Hunter, L. M., Krannich, R. S., & Smith, M. D. (2002). Rural migration, rapid growth, and fear of crime. Rural Sociology, 67, 71–89.
Innes, M., & Jones, V. (2006). Neighbourhood security and urban change: Risk, resilience and recovery. Joseph Rowntree Foundation.
Innes, M. (2017). From fear to understanding. Making and managing public reactions to crime, disorder and policing. In N. Tilley & A. Sidebottom (Eds.), Handbook of crime prevention and community safety (pp. 470–487). Routledge.
Irvin-Erickson, Y., Malik, A. A., & Kamiran, F. (2020a). Contextual determinants of fear of crime in public transit: An ecological momentary assessment (EMA) pilot study. In Vania and Nalla (Eds.), Crime and Fear in Public Places. Routledge 52 Vanderbilt Avenue, New York, NY 10017.
Irvin-Erickson, Y., Malik, A. A., Kamiran, F., & Natarajan, M. (2020b). Utility of ecological momentary assessments to collect data on fear of crime. International Journal of Comparative and Applied Criminal Justice. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1080/01924036.2020.1719532, 1–13.
Lorenc, T., Clayton, S., Neary, D., Whitehead, M., Petticrew, M., Thomson, H., Cummins, S., Sowden, A., & Renton, A. (2012). Crime, fear of crime, environment, and mental health and wellbeing: Mapping review of theories and causal pathways. Health & Place, 18, 757–765.
Loukaitou-Sideris, A. (2014). Fear and safety in transit environments from the women’s perspective. Security Journal, 27, 242–256.
Macassa, G., Winersjö, R., Wijk, K., Macgrath, C., Ahmadi, N., & Soares, J. (2018). Fear of crime and its relationship to self-reported health and stress among men. Journal of Public Health Research, 6, 1010.
Machielse, W. (2015). Perceived safety in public spaces: A quantitative investigation of the spatial and social influences on safety perception among young adults in Stockholm. Retrieved from https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/Perceived-safety-in-public-spaces-:-A-quantitative-Machielse/6a9bafd76af6a3da8b0d9678681dc098def88b12.
Md Sakip, S. R., Abdullah, A., & Salleh, M. N. M. (2018). Fear of crime in residential areas. Asian Journal of Environment-Behaviour Studies (ajE-Bs), 3(7), 81–89.
Md Sakip, S. R. M., Johari, N., & Mohd Salleh, M. N. (2013). Perception of safety in gated and non-gated communities. Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences, 85, 383–391.
Mehta, V. (2014). Evaluating public space. Journal of Urban Design, 19(1), 53–88. https://doi.org/10.1080/13574809.2013.854698
Michael, S. N., & Hull, R. B. (1994). Effects on vegetation on crime in urban parks. Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, College of Forestry and Wildlife Resources, Department of Forestry.
Mohd Arshad, M. R., Abu Hassan, N. N., & Hj Hussin, Z. (2018). The antecedents of fear of violent crime in Selangor, Malaysia. Journal of Administrative Science (Special Edition: ICOPS), 15(3). http://jas.uitm.edu.my
Ortega, S., & Myles, J. (1987). Race and gender effects on the fear of crime: An interactive model with age. Criminology, 25, 133–152.
Pain, R. (2001). Gender, race, age and fear in the city. Urban Studies, 38, 899–913.
Peake, L. J. (2020). Gender and the city. In International encyclopedia of human geography (2nd ed., pp. 281–292). Elsevier. https://doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-08-102295-5.10186-6
Putra, D. W., Salim, W. A., Indradjati, P. N., & Prilandita, N. (2023). Understanding the position of urban spatial configuration on the feeling of insecurity from crime in public spaces. Frontiers in Built Environment, 9, Article 1114968. https://doi.org/10.3389/fbuil.2023.1114968
Ratnayake, R. (2013). Fear of crime in urban settings: Influence of environmental features, presence of people and social variables. Bhumi, The Planning Research Journal, 3(2).
Roy, S., & Bailey, A. (2021). Safe in the city? Negotiating safety, public space and the male gaze in Kolkata, India. Cities, 117, Article 103321.
Scharf, T., Phillipson, C., & Smith, A. (2003). Older adults’ perceptions of the neighborhood: Evidence from socially deprived urban areas. Sociological Research Online, 8(4), 1–12.
Semmens, N. (2007). Towards an understanding of ‘fear’ as an intangible cost of crime. International Review of Victimology, 14, 219–235.
Shamsudin, K. (2008). Safe city programme: Are we on the right path to reduce crime? Journal of the Malaysian Institute of Planners, 6(1), 1–18.
Smith, A. E. (2009). Ageing in urban neighborhoods: Place attachment and social exclusion. Policy Press.
Stjernborg, V., & Bamzar, R. (2020). Does context matter? Older adults’ safety perceptions of neighborhood environments in Sweden. In Vania and Nalla (Eds.), Crime and Fear in Public Places. Routledge 52 Vanderbilt Avenue, New York, NY 10017.
Tjaden, P., & Thoennes, N. (2006). Extent, nature, and consequences of rape victimization: Findings from the National Violence Against Women Survey. U.S. Department of Justice.
UN-Habitat. (2019). Safer Cities Programme. https://fukuoka.unhabitat.org/programmes/detail0401en.html (accessed 06 April 2024).
Valentine, G. (1990). Women’s fear and the design of public space. Built Environment, 16(4), 288–303.
Vera-Gray, F., & Kelly, L. (2020). Contested gendered space: Public sexual harassment and women’s safety work. In Vania and Nalla (Eds.), Crime and Fear in Public Places. Routledge 52 Vanderbilt Avenue, New York, NY 10017.
Vernez Moudon, A., Bassok, A., & Kang, M. (2018). Safe from crime at location-specific transit facilities (No. WA-RD 882.1). Washington State Department of Transportation, Research Office.
Vrij, A., & Winkel, F. W. (1991). Characteristics of the built environment and fear of crime: A research note on interventions in unsafe locations. Deviant Behavior, 12, 203–215.
Warr, M. (1985). Fear of rape among urban women. Social Problems, 32, 238–250.
Waters, J., Neale, R., & Mears, K. (2007). Design and community regeneration: Investigating personal safety concerns of older people in socio-economically deprived communities in South Wales. University of Glamorgan.
Wilson, J. Q., & Kelling, G. L. (1982). Broken windows. The Atlantic Monthly, 249, 29–38.
Yates, A., & Ceccato, V. (2020). Individual and spatial dimensions of women’s fear of crime: A Scandinavian study case. In Vania and Nalla (Eds.), Crime and Fear in Public Places. Routledge 52 Vanderbilt Avenue, New York, NY 10017.
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 3.0 Unported License.
Copyright & Creative Commons Licence
eISSN: 0128-0945 © Year. The Authors. Published for Malaysian Institute of Planners. This is an open-access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license.
The authors hold the copyright without restrictions and also retain publishing rights without restrictions.
