IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/envira/v44y2012i2p428-444.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Feeling Unsafe in Urban Areas: Exploring Older Children's Geographies of Fear

Author

Listed:
  • Rosemary D F Bromley

    (Department of Geography, College of Science, Swansea University, Swansea SA2 8PP, Wales)

  • Robert J Stacey

    (Northumberland Fire & Rescue Service HQ, West Hartford Business Park, Cramlington, Northumberland NE23 3JP, England)

Abstract

In contrast to the adult and aspatial focus of much research, this paper examines older children's feelings of fear/safety in two contrasting British urban residential areas, and in the nearby city centre. In their home areas, children in the deprived area feel less safe than those in the wealthier suburb. However, in the city centre, the poorer-area children feel safer than their wealthier-area counterparts, suggesting a home-area moderating effect. Regarding gendered-area differences in safety, boys and girls have similar perspectives on their home areas, but significant gender differences exist for the city centre. Area should be a key dimension in conceptual frameworks for understanding fear and safety, with due awareness of home and nonhome areas, and gendered-area differences. Explanations for children's anxieties indicate the importance of fear of groups of teenagers and the relevance of social disorganization. Tackling the perceived problem of teenage groups should be one policy priority in urban areas in which social disorder is pronounced.

Suggested Citation

  • Rosemary D F Bromley & Robert J Stacey, 2012. "Feeling Unsafe in Urban Areas: Exploring Older Children's Geographies of Fear," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 44(2), pages 428-444, February.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:envira:v:44:y:2012:i:2:p:428-444
    DOI: 10.1068/a44224
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1068/a44224
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1068/a44224?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:sae:envira:v:44:y:2012:i:2:p:428-444. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: SAGE Publications (email available below). General contact details of provider: .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.