TITLE:
Investigation of Fear of Crime in City Centers through the Example of Beşiktaş Sinanpaşa Neighborhood
AUTHORS:
Elif Köklü, Funda Yirmibeşoğlu
KEYWORDS:
Urban Crime, Safety Perception, Fear of Crime, Urban Design, City Security
JOURNAL NAME:
Current Urban Studies,
Vol.5 No.3,
September
19,
2017
ABSTRACT: Physical and social structures of urban spaces may cause them to turn into
crime areas or areas that can create fear of crime. Fear of crime is an important
urban problem which affects the quality of life in cities as much as the
crime cases themselves. Personal safety and the need for protection from
crime have a considerably critical place among the issues to take into account
during urban design and planning. The aim of the present study is to explain
fear of crime as a problem which affects the life quality negatively in the city
centers that turn into crime areas with urbanization and to determine the factors
causing this situation. With this aim in mind, a questionnaire study has
been carried out in Be?ikta? Sinanpa?a Neighborhood to evaluate the safety
perception of the users and to identify the factors creating the perception of
unsafety. In addition, the relationship between fear and space structure has
been examined by using the space syntax method. As a result of the study, it is
determined that the relationship between fear of crime and environmental
factors is relatively stronger than the relationship between fear and demographic
factors. Accessibility of the environment, in addition to the factors
such as overpopulation in urban space, desolateness, inadequate lighting, and
graffiti-like elements in the area, has been found to contribute negatively to
the increase of fear of crime.