Stuck at the front door: gender, fear of crime and the challenge of creating safer space

Abstract

This paper is in respectful challenge to two streams in urban social geography and planning literatures: the question of how gendered geographies of fear help constitute identities spatially, and the related question of how gendered urban space can be made and remade to be more egalitarian. I argue that the first of these bodies of literature is often trapped in an unhelpful public-private divide, which reflects the inability of mainstream crime prevention to include violence committed within families and households as a central focus of concern. I further argue that the question of how urban space can become more egalitarian needs to be concerned with violence and fear in the private realm ..