Gendered Stagnation, or Gendered Transformation? State, City, and Activist Responses to Gender-Based Violent Crime

Session Submission Type: Complete Thematic Panel

Abstract/Description

This thematic panel brings interdisciplinary expertise to bear on the international crisis of gender-based violent crime as it manifests in Canadian and European contexts. We assess diverse women’s responses to state safety messaging, municipal urban planning interventions, and men’s individual efforts to address gender-based violent crime. Papers in this panel are informed by an intersectional theoretical framework which aims to shed light on the ways in which race, class, and gender intersect to shape women’s perceptions of safety across space and place. Informed by walking interviews, relief mapping, focus groups, and traditional one-on-one interviews, our findings collectively uncover the ways in which women feel responsibilized to prevent men’s violence; desire more concerted involvement in anti-violence work from men; and feel their needs are rendered invisible in urban planning schemes. Cumulatively, we reveal that state-, city-, and community-led safety interventions continue to underserve women. Given the recent resurgence of public interest in ameliorating gender-based violent crime, these findings come at a crucial moment of renewed institutional commitment to redressing the crisis of gender-based violence.

Sub Unit

• Area IV. Correlates of Crime / 32. Sex, Gender, and Sexuality

Individual Presentations

• The Intersectional Nature of White, Middle-Class Women’s Fears in Stockholm, Sweden - Anna Yates, Newcastle University

• “If My Story’s in the News, What Sounds Better?”: Women’s Navigations of the Fear Landscape - Rebecca Lennox, University of Toronto

• Women’s Perspectives on Men’s Engagement in Practice and Activism to Address Men’s Violence Against Women - Jessica Wild, Newcastle University