Analyzing Fear of Crime: Methodological Insights from Urban Landscape Perception

• In Event: WG-PLACE 5: Neighbourhoods and Crime

Abstract

Urban landscape design goes beyond the association of morphological structures and empty spaces that shape the city environment; it influences an individual's perception and behaviour in the public space. Similarly, people's grasping of criminality and where it occurs also influences their appreciation of city areas through feelings of insecurity and fearfulness. Therefore, this research aims to discern how landscape perception methodologies can help understand the fear of crime, illustrated by the case applied in Curitiba, Paraná, Brazil. This study consists of a scientific framework approach to comprehending how individuals perceive spatial material and immaterial aspects relating to criminality and public urban spaces' landscape. The results show how landscape perception can help extract subjective data from individuals concerning their feelings and perceptions related to fear of crime. Two analytical focuses are emphasized, the first regarding Landscapes Preferences, which relates to an individual's environmental interpretation by aesthetic judgment, and the second is the Environmental Images and Cognitive Mapping, which relates to a person's singular way of cognitively assimilating environmental information to apply in their daily lives. Conceptually, both perspectives illustrate an intrinsic relation to how fear dwells on spatial perception and how urban spaces are engaged. In that manner, a methodological layout involving the topics mentioned above is discussed, incorporating surveys, alternative forms of information gathering, and data mapping. The conclusion is that the landscape perception approach contributes directly to a qualitative study design on comprehending, through a different lens that focuses more on cognitive and emotional human perception, how criminality affects the daily life of citizens in their use of space.

Authors

• Victor Augusto Bosquilia Abade, Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB) and Pontifical Catholic University of Paraná (PUCPR)

• Lucas Melgaço, Associate Professor -VUB

• Letícia Peret Antunes Hardt, Pontifícia Universidade Católica do Paraná (PUCPR)