Download Background to Women`s Safety Audits/ Assessments

Background to Women’s Safety Audits/
Assessments
Introduction
Research shows that the experience of fear is not gender neutral, and that women report
feeling more afraid in public places than men, particularly in relation to crime.1 Despite
the fact that the evidence shows that women are more likely to experience physical
violence in their home by a current and/or previous partner, fear of attack from a
stranger in public spaces is a lived reality for many women.
And men and women use public spaces differently and have different concerns about
how public spaces meet their needs and what makes them feel safe in public spaces.
This background paper aims to provide an overview of what is currently occurring and
has occurred to do with safety assessments in public spaces, with a focus on women.
Definition of safety in public spaces
WCHM defines public space as a set place, public event or public transport that is open
to the general public, or is used by the general public whether or not payment of money
is necessary to use the facilities, area or transport. It does not include schools.
Some examples of public spaces in the ACT and surrounding regions include public
libraries, the ACT legislative assembly area, community centres, bus stops, buses,
museums, galleries, Lake Burley Griffin, bike paths, local shopping centers, major public
car parks, areas around places of worship, taxi ranks, public festivals and events, city
pools and public toilets.
The fear of crime is a very important element in women's safety in public spaces. This
means that for women to feel safe in public places it is necessary to address fear and
perceptions of crime and actual levels of crime.
Historical Background of Safety Audits/Assessments
Internationally
The UN Habitat Safer Cities Programme was launched in 1996 to primarily focus on
improving the overall safety of cities in different countries in Africa. The program has
been accumulating theoretical and practical knowledge on urban violence prevention
issues and is focused on urban management and vulnerabilities regarding urban
violence at a local level, Safer Cities has developed specific tools and strategies to
address urban vulnerabilities vis-à-vis violence and offences. Key actor of a culture of
urban safety and reference center of knowledge and good practices on urban safety and
social cohesion, Safer Cities Programme provides its partners and other interested and
implicated organizations with knowledge, tools and technical support to contribute to the
development of urban safety and social cohesion.
1
LawLink NSW 1999, Plan It Safe: A Guide For Making Public Places Safer For Women, p.3, retrieved 18
February 2011, <http://www.lawlink.nsw.gov.au/swp/swp.nsf/pages/swp_intro>
To date, Safer Cities initiatives are well under way in several African cities and are also
being replicated at the national level in some of the pilot countries in Africa. The
programme has been extended to Latin America, Asia and Port Moresby, Papua New
Guinea, catering for an increasing need for exchange of information, knowledge and
good practices between national, regional and local governments as well as civil society,
non-governmental organizations and the international level. The main focus of the
program is on urban areas, and reducing violence in these urban areas.
Since the launch of Safer Cities, some progressive work has been undertaken overseas
about women’s safety and how urban planning can consider women’s safety when
governments are planning cities and public spaces for the people.
Oxfam Great Britain have done a small amount of work around gender equality and
urban planning, which highlights that broadly speaking, women feel less safe than men
being out alone after dark, especially in the inner city, or social housing estates.2 It also
highlights that social inclusion programs would be more effective if public space planning
took into account the different needs of men and women, which has an impact on
community work on many different levels.
Supporting this, access to community life and public spaces through safe public and
private transport options including parking, number of buses impacted on women’s
ability to participate, particularly for those reliant on public or community transport (p. 3).3
There have been a several women’s safety audits undertaken in Canada, primarily in
relation to reducing violence against women and supporting women to feel safe (thus a
‘perception of safety’) from violence in within neighborhoods, housing units and
workplaces.4
The safety audits which have been undertaken in various cities in Canada, use a
methodology where a group of older women go out with the project supervisor and audit
the local area by physically visiting it and undertaking a ‘walk-about’ and then filling out a
survey of questions that ask about the social and physical environment with links to how
women feel in terms of safety in these areas. The leader of the group is given a
‘Leader’s Guide’ to support running the audit, which includes background preparation
data. Metric then collates the data within here months of the safety audit, and sends it
back as a sort of ‘neighborhood report card’.
Within Australia
In 1992, the Liverpool Healthy Cities began responding to what factors of the urban
environment might be contributing to women feeling unsafe.5 This included identifying
what made women feel safe at certain times of the day in different areas. This was
primarily linked to what was making women feel afraid in these areas, and to produce
People’s perceptions of personal security and their concerns about crime on public transport, literature
review, prepared for Department of Transport by Crime Concern, 2002 in Author Unknown 2007, A Place
For Everyone? Gender Equality and Urban Planning. A ReGender Briefing Paper, retrieved 29 May 2011,
<http://www.oxfam.org.uk/resources/ukpoverty/downloads/placeforeveryone.pdf>
3
WCHM Roundtable And Survey About Involving Older Women In Decision Making Aspects Of Service
Provision In The ACT, p.3
2
4
Metropolitan Action Committee on Violence Against Women and Children (METRAC) 2010,
METRAC’s Community Safety Audit: Leader’s Guide,
5
Lawlink NSW 1999, Plan It Safe: A Guide For Making Public Places Safer For Women, retrieved 20
June 2011, <http://www.lawlink.nsw.gov.au/swp/swp.nsf/pages/swp_intro>
conversation that would then lead onto reducing the levels of violence that women
perceived from each area.
Lawlink NSW developed a resource called Plan It Safe: A Guide For Making Public
Places Safer For Women which was
The Bundeena Centre Community Safety Audit was held over two days in October, 2004
in Southern Sydney as a response to concerns voiced by some members of the local
community. It was a joint initiative of the Sutherland Shire Community Crime Prevention
and Safety Committee and local residents. The safety audit involved background
research including resident comments, demographic examination and a reported crime
profile of the target area in addition to a physical examination of the village centre and
other key areas6.
For the community safety audits that occur in regional NSW, they use the methodology
of empowering the community to identify the idea needing to be audited, and then the
council works with the community to undertake the audits.
The City of Perth conducted an age friendly city public consultation to gain peoples
views and aspirations aged 50-80 on how to make the City of Perth more age friendly –
where are its strengths and where is there need for improvement. This project used the
World Health Organization methodology being used by 33 cities in 22 countries. The
emphasis is on grass roots consultations through a survey, and a number of focus
groups to identify priority areas for action within the eight ‘quality of life’ domains as
follows:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
Outdoor spaces and Buildings
Transport
Housing
Social participation
Respect and social inclusion
Civic participation and employment
Communication and information, and
Community support and Health Services.
The Queensland Police Service has developed the Queensland Police Service Women’s
Safety Project, which began in 1990.
The Wollondilly Shire Council in NSW provides advice and resources on its website
about how the public can undertake a community safety audit, citing that it helps to
identify areas likely to stimulate fear and criminal opportunity, and gives the public the
chance to survey public areas, and inform private and public agencies of existing or
potential problem areas that could (reasonably) be made safer7. The basis of these
community safety audits is to reduce the local environment from risk of crime. The
audits are based on the key principles of Crime Prevention Through Environmental
Design (CPTED) which encourages the application of design features, routine activities
6
http://bundeenainfo.com/bundeena-safety-audit-report-8.html
Wollondilly Shire Council 2011, Community Safety Audit, accessed 21 June 2011,
<http://www.wollondilly.nsw.gov.au/community/247860/255337.html>
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and space management practices that alter conditions that create opportunities for social
disorder and/or criminal behaviour (Safer by Design NSW Police 1999).
Within the ACT and Surrounding Regions
The ACT Government runs an online reporting facility which provides direct contact to
ACT Government Agencies for the reporting of municipal service requests, including
fixing potholes, bike paths and road safety. There is an option to follow-up on your
report and register if future issues or instances occur. As with city planning, it is more
focused on infrastructure rather than considerations around people’s safety, or how
different people use different spaces in different ways, for example older women are
likely to use a space differently than teenage males.8
Further to this, there have been several surveys and roundtables about older women’s
health in relation to their social inclusion, which have included information and feedback
around perceptions of safety in the ACT. These include work from Women’s Centre for
Health Matters around the views of older women about safety in the ACT, and the
YWCA of Canberra who explored the needs of older women in the Canberra
community9.
Methodologies and Methods in use
There are already some safety audits that have taken place, but they have been more to
do with addressing violence towards women and these women feeling safe around men.
Conclusion
Safety audits do need to be gender and age specific to be truly effective when auditing
the safety needs of a particular demographic. When women feel safe in public spaces,
they are move likely to get involved in public social activities, which will have a positive
impact in their emotional and physical wellbeing.
Each public space is likely to have its own characteristics, and one audit undertaken in
one area may not produce the same issues for another area, or in the same area but at
a different time of day. So by being locally developed and locally driven, improvements
in women’s safety in public spaces in the ACT are more likely.10
Lawlink 1999, Plan it Safe – Women Talking About Safety in Public Spaces, p. 1, retrieved February
2011, <http://www.lawlink.nsw.gov.au/swp/swp.nsf/pages/swp_1>
9
YWCA of Canberra 2009, Exploring The Needs of Older Women in the Canberra Community – a YWCA
of Canberra Community Study, YWCA of Canberra, Canberra, ACT, Australia.
10
LawLink NSW 1999, Plan It Safe: A Guide For Making Public Places Safer For Women, p.3, retrieved
18 February 2011, <http://www.lawlink.nsw.gov.au/swp/swp.nsf/pages/swp_intro>
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