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Safer Cities: A critical analysis of measuring self-reported public harassment experiences in urban contexts

Thu, September 7, 6:30 to 7:45pm, Palazzo Affari, Floor: third floor, Affari 6

Abstract

Public harassment (PH) (i.e., a wide range of intrusive and unwanted sexual and non-sexual behaviors) is not only a harmful experience for victims, but it also represents a pervasive societal problem, that recreates and reinforces power relations and inequality. Despite this, PH remained an underreported and thus fairly ignored phenomenon in the past by researchers and policy makers. With the goal of putting PH on the agenda and supporting youths living in large cities who have experienced one or more of these types of behavior, the NGO Plan International started the Safer Cities initiative almost a decade ago. By launching a digital platform through which victims can report harassment experiences in urban public spaces, large amounts of quantitative data were collected from 20 cities across the globe since 2014. In the present study, we analyzed and compared data collected on the Safer Cities platform in late spring 2023 from several Belgian cities. Based on the results, we answer questions such as ‘where does SH happen most frequently?’, ‘what type of harassment most likely takes place?’, ‘what are the characteristics of the harassers?’, and ‘how likely was it that witnesses, if present, intervene or help?’. Additionally, we critically discuss the data collection process of the Safer Cities platform and offer recommendations. The findings of this study will shed light on the prevalence and nature of PH in urban contexts, as well as the importance of reliable and valid measurement instruments.

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