Gendered landscapes of safety: How women construct and navigate the urban landscape to avoid sexual violence
| Author | Catherine Donovan,Nicola Roberts,Matthew Durey |
| Published date | 01 April 2022 |
| Date | 01 April 2022 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1177/1748895820963208 |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
https://doi.org/10.1177/1748895820963208
Criminology & Criminal Justice
2022, Vol. 22(2) 287 –303
© The Author(s) 2020
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DOI: 10.1177/1748895820963208
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Gendered landscapes of safety:
How women construct and
navigate the urban landscape
to avoid sexual violence
Nicola Roberts
University of Sunderland, UK
Catherine Donovan
University of Durham, UK
Matthew Durey
University of Sunderland, UK
Abstract
This article presents findings from an online survey gathering quantitative and qualitative data
from men and women students at a university in the north of England in 2016. The survey
explored their perceptions of safety and experiences of interpersonal violence during their time
as a student, both on and off campus. We show how women were more likely to report sexual
violence compared to men. We also show how women students, compared to men, were less
likely to say they never felt unsafe as they moved away from the university into the city, and as
they moved from day into night. We illustrate how interconnecting factors construct women’s
perceptions of safety, and subsequently, how locations perceived as unsafe ‘hotspots’, become
physical barriers impeding women’s access to public and educational spaces. Consequently, we
outline measures to enhance women’s safety while at university.
Keywords
Perceptions of safety, sexual violence, strategies of safety, urban landscape, women students
Corresponding author:
Nicola Roberts, University of Sunderland, Reg Vardy Centre, St. Peter’s Campus, Sunderland SR6 0DD, UK.
Email: nicola.roberts@sunderland.ac.uk
963208CRJ0010.1177/1748895820963208Criminology & Criminal JusticeRoberts et al.
research-article2020
Article
288 Criminology & Criminal Justice 22(2)
Introduction
This article is about how women’s behaviour is regulated in public spaces by the actual
and perceived threat of men’s sexually violent behaviours. While serious sexual vio-
lence, such as rape and sexual assault, is most often carried out by known men (Ministry
of Justice, 2013) in private spaces (Calkins et al., 2015; Pain, 1991; Waterhouse et al.,
2016), the majority of verbal and physical sexual harassment to which women are
exposed occurs in public places and is committed by men, who are strangers (Kelly,
1988; Pain, 1991; Vera-Gray, 2018). Research on university students shows that some
women regularly report experiencing sexual harassment and sexual assault, in public
places on and off campus (Roberts et al., 2019; Stenning et al., 2013). In NUS (2011)
research with 2058 women, 68% of students had experienced, verbal and physical sexual
harassment, including flashing, groping and unwanted sexual comments, within and out-
side their institution and almost one in four women reported they had experienced
unwanted sexual contact. Such research has fuelled student-led campaigns, which call
for ‘Zero Tolerance to Sexual Harassment’ (Universities UK, 2016: 34). Yet, the House
of Commons Women and Equalities Committee (2019: 3) states that ‘it is astonishing
that the most common form of violence against women – sexual harassment – is cur-
rently almost entirely overlooked’ in the Violence Against Women and Girls govern-
ment’s strategy. Radical feminist writers argue that such sexual violence against women
serves to reflect and reinforce patriarchal relations and a patriarchal social order, in
which men, as a sex-class wield power over women (Radford and Stanko, 1996; Walby,
1990). Moreover, because the media amplifies the use of sexual violence by some men,
the perceived threat of serious sexual violence becomes sufficient to regulate women’s
use of public spaces and their behaviour in such spaces (Mehta and Bondi, 1999; Pain,
1991; Walby, 1990), particularly at night (Hanmer and Saunders, 1984; Valentine, 1988).
The article begins by unpacking more broadly the impact of the threat of others, particu-
larly predatory men in public places, and especially in the night-time, on women’s per-
ceptions of safety and subsequent behaviours. This is followed by a review of the research
literature on students’ perceptions of safety and strategies of safety. After this, we outline
our methods and sample for the study, who are university students in the north of England.
Using both quantitative and qualitative data, we sought to find out about students’ expe-
riences of interpersonal violence and about their perceptions of safety. We present an
analysis and discussion of our findings, and the implications of these for policies, prac-
tices and research.
Gendering the urban landscape: The threat of others in the
night-time
Discourses about the threat faced by those abroad in the night-time are both gendered
and embodied in ‘the stranger’. Conservative family values perceive threats to the family
as external and thus perpetuate ‘stranger danger’ (Chenier, 2011). Such political rhetoric
encourages us to be wary of strangers and to avoid them (Sparks et al., 2001). Media
representations can also reaffirm these political messages of danger, acting as a tool to
control populations (Walby, 1990). Walby (1990: 140) argues that the media enables a
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