Safety and inclusion in public space: taking street harassment seriously

Abstract

Addressing gender-based violence is vital if we are to achieve the Sustainable Development Goal of creating cities that are safe and inclusive. While women and LGBTQ+ people are most at risk of violence in the home, we know that these cohorts consistently report low perceptions of safety in public space, particularly at night. Women and LGBTQ+ people's low perceptions of safety in public space have often been presented as a 'paradox', given the apparent disjuncture between the location of much gender-based violence (the home) and locations of perceived unsafety (public space), at least within the context of the Global North. However, this ignores the fact that women and LGBTQ+ people are rou..