What is it about?
Women fear crime more than men. This paper shows how women manage perceived risks of sexual violence differently to men. Women adopt particularly strategies during the day and after dark to stay safe, using additional strategies after dark.
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Why is it important?
The findings show that by adopting risk management strategies to keep themselves safe, women appear to experience lower levels of serious violent victimisation in public spaces compared to men. However, the paper raises important issues about the media representing risks of sexual violence from an informed perspective, for example, situating the risks against a wider backdrop of other negative life events. This may help women to freely use public space during the day and after dark.
Perspectives
This article was important to write because I wanted to show that women make conscious decisions on a habitual basis when using public space to keep themselves safe. It was also important for me to highlight that this conscious decision-making process was a likely result of distorted media representations about how, when and where sexual violence occurs against women. The media need to inform women of the actual risks of sexual violence so that they adopt realistic strategies to keep themselves safe, rather than overly fearing sexual attack in public space. This may lead women to reclaim public space, particularly after dark.
Nicola Roberts
University of Sunderland
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Gender, sexual danger and the everyday management of risks: the social control of young females, Journal of Gender-Based Violence, February 2019, Policy Press,
DOI: 10.1332/239868018x15265563342670.
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