This article examines women's fear of crime. Through an examination of current attempts to address women's fear of crime, it is argued that women's anxiety about danger is largely a fear of men and reflects women's location in a gendered world. Confronting women's fear means confronting the danger women face at the hands of their partners, acquaintances, clients, and coworkers, as well as other potential violence from men inside and outside the home. In contrast, government advice tries to assuage women's fear by suggesting that women adopt individually managed precautionary strategies to minimize encounters with male strangers. Good lighting, good transport, adequate child care, decent education, safe houses, and safe relationships—one without the others is inadequate to address women's needs and, by extension, women's fear of crime.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
1. Lisa Mitchell, “Video and CD Kit Teaches Women to Beat Attackers,”Age, 19 July 1994.
2.
2. Ellen Neuborne, “Cashing in on Fear,”Ms. Magazine, 4(6):46-50 (1994).
3.
3. Wesley G. Skogan and Michael G. Maxfield, Coping with Crime (Newbury Park, CA: Sage, 1981).
4.
4. Michael Maxfield, Fear of Crime in England and Wales (London: Her Majesty's Stationery Office, 1984), p. 14.
5.
5. Mark Warr, “Fear of Victimisation: Why Are Women and the Elderly More Afraid?”Social Science Quarterly, 65:681-702 (1984).
6.
6. Margaret T. Gordon and Stephanie Riger, The Female Fear (New York: Free Press, 1988).
7.
7. Elizabeth A. Stanko, “Hidden Violence against Women,” in Victims: A New Deal? ed. M. Maguire and J. Pointing (Milton Keynes, England: Open University Press, 1988), pp. 40-46.
8.
8. Michael D. Smith, “Women's Fear of Violent Crime: An Exploratory Test of a Feminist Hypothesis,”Journal of Family Violence, 3:29-38 (1988).
9.
9. Rachel Pain, “Crime, Social Control and Spatial Constraint” (Ph.D. diss., University of Edinburgh, 1993).
10.
10. Jo Goodey, “Fear of Crime: What Can Children Tell Us?”International Review of Victimology, 3:195-210 (1994).
11.
11. Elizabeth Stanko, Everyday Violence (London: Pandora Press, 1990).
12.
12. Pat Mayhew, Lizanne Dowds, and David Elliot, The 1988 British Crime Survey (London: Her Majesty's Stationery Office, 1989), p. 36.
13.
13. Ibid., p. 38.
14.
Mary R. Harvey and Mary P. Koss, The Rape Victim (Newbury Park, CA: Sage, 1991).
15.
On community safety audits, see Miranda Lawrence, “Improving Women's Urban Safety: The Centretown Experience” (Report to Centretown Citizens' Community Association, Ottawa, Canada, 1991).
16.
16. For an exception, see Adam Crawfordet al., The Second Islington Crime Survey (London: Middlesex Centre for Criminology, 1990).
18. Gill Valentine, “The Geography of Women's Fear,”Area, 21(4):385-390 (1989).
19.
19. Pain, “Crime, Social Control and Spatial Constraing,” p. 313.
20.
Stanko , Everyday Violence, pp. 85-108.
21.
21. Carol B. Gardner, “Access Information: Public Lies and Private Peril,”Social Problems, 35(4):384-397 (1988).
22.
22. Rebecca E. Dobash and Russell P. Dobash, Women, Crime and Social Change (London: Routledge, 1992).
23.
Pat O'Malley , “Risk, Power and Crime Prevention,”Economy and Society, 21(3):252-275 (1992).
24.
Jalna Hanmer and Elizabeth A. Stanko, “Stripping Away the Rhetoric of Protection: Violence to Women, Law and the State in Britain and the USA,” ibid., 13:357-374 (1985).
25.
Trevor Jones , Tim Newburn, and David Smith, Democracy and Policing (London: Policy Studies Institute, 1994).
26.
26. O'Malley, “Risk, Power and Crime Prevention,” p. 261.
27.
27. Paul Anderson, “Sex Attack on Tourist,”Herald Sun (Melbourne, Victoria, Australia), 24 Aug. 1994.
28.
28. Statement by Sir Peter Imbert, World Society of Victimology, 23 Aug. 1994.
31. Naomi Wolf, Fire with Fire (London: Chatto & Windus, 1993), p. 41.
32.
32. Edinburgh (Scotland) Women's Unit, Zero Tolerance Campaign literature (1994).
33.
33. Jenny Kitinger and Kate Hunt, “Evaluation of Edinburgh District Council's Zero Tolerance Campaign” (Report to Edinburgh District Council Women's Committee, 1993), pp. 25-27.
34.
34. Pain, “Crime, Social Control and Spacial Constraint,” p. 117.
35.
35. Katie Roiphe, The Morning After (London: Hamish Hamilton, 1993).
36.
36. Wolf, Fire with Fire, p. 147.
37.
37. Linda MacLeod, Freedom from Fear: A Woman's Right, a Community Concern, a National Priority (Ottawa: Department of the Secretary of State of Canada, 1992).
