What Makes a Place Unsafe? Using Interactive Maps with University Students to Identify Unsafe Spaces - CANCELLED

• In Event: Communities, Drugs, and Crime

Abstract

Previous research has established that fear of crime is intrinsically linked to perceptions of unsafe spaces (Doyle et al., 2022). However, whilst crime events can be recorded as discrete occurrences, it can be difficult to identify individualized fear of crime events that lead to perceptions of places being unsafe, and thus fear of crime estimates may often be aggregated to a wider geographical area (Solymosi et al. 2015), resulting in lost detail of localised issues (Weisburd et al., 2012). Taking a more localised approach, this project explored student perceptions of unsafe spaces, identifying locations perceived by university students as unsafe in and around the city where they are currently studying (in the Southwest of England). Unsafe locations were identified through user-generated maps using ArcGIS Survey123 Connect survey software. The results revealed hotspots of perceived unsafe locations, as well as the characteristics associated with these areas. Drawing on the 2021 Output Area Classification (based on the 2021 England and Wales Census), a relationship was found between perceived unsafe spaces and their respective geodemographic classifications. The impact of scale on the assessment of unsafe spaces is explored, alongside the implications of these findings for the neighbourhoods in which these spaces belong.

Author

• Nick Addis, University of the West of England