Mapping Fear of Crime

Reka Solymosi

Fear of crime has a significant impact on

• transport mode choice,

• walkability/ cycling,

• accessibility

• Important element of transport safety &

security in London

Current situation

• Retrospective Surveys

• Market research

Issues with current information

Issues with current information

Issues with current information

Issues with current information

?

What would be better?

• More accurate recall

• Reflective of experience in everyday life

• Precise spatial and temporal data

• Entire activity space

How?

Pilot study

What kind of data can be expected from this method?

Variations by

• Time of day

• Day of week

• Residents v. Non-residents

• Etc…

Fear of crime experienced in everyday life

versus generalised anxieties and concerns

• Much less overall than people assumed.

• Significant difference between genders in retrospective

survey disappears in daily life.

Figure 1: Gender divide in pre-

experiment questionnaire results

Figure 2: Gender divide in ESM experiment

results

vs.

Benefits

• Measure everyday “lived”

experience

• Map street level & whole journey

• Dynamic

• Methodology could be applied to

journey chain (vs street level)

Targeted &

holistic

interventions from

policing/ policy/

urban planning

and design

Next Steps

• Full-scale study

• Interviews to ensure validity of measurements

• Case studies

• Correlations with other data

– Recorded crime

– Built environmental factors (CCTV, pubs, etc)

– Area characteristics

– ???

Thank you!

Comments, questions, advice?

Reka Solymosi

r.solymosi.11@ucl.ac.uk