Concerns of personal safety in public spaces constrain citizens’ time-space access to employment, schooling, socializing, and recreation opportunities. One common strategy to reduce fear of crime to transform the built environment. While policy efforts have focused on creating urban environment transformation that directly targets the conscious emotional experience of fear of crime, James-Lange and Schachter-Singer theories proposes that alterations of its emotional physiological expression could also feedback to reduce fear emotional expression. This study explores whether Nature-Based Solutions [NBS] - an emotional expression strategy to transform the built environment - can reduce fear of crime, and how it compares with commonly cited emotional experience strategies -Broken Windows Theory [BWT] and Eyes on the Streets [EOS]. For this, an image-based randomized control trial with 500 participants was conducted in 2021. A series of control and treatment images simulating each built environment strategy was viewed and ranked by participants according to perceived safety. The findings of this study suggest that: all built environment strategies significantly increase the perception of safety in public spaces. Nature-based solutions are an effective built environment to reduce fear of crime, comparable with experience-focused EOS and BW strategies. We also find that the impact of NBS, EOS and BW is place specific. Therefore, these results suggest that NBS should be included in the safety-enhancing urban planning toolkit while considering the solution-place specificity problem. The presented technique could support urban researchers and planners to explore other expression-driven strategies to make cities feel safe for all.
Le preoccupazioni per la sicurezza personale negli spazi pubblici limitano l'accesso tempo-spazio dei cittadini al lavoro, alla scuola, alla socializzazione e alle opportunità ricreative. Una strategia comune per ridurre la paura del crimine è quella di trasformare l'ambiente costruito. Mentre gli sforzi politici si sono concentrati sulla creazione di una trasformazione dell'ambiente urbano che mira direttamente all'esperienza emotiva cosciente della paura del crimine, le teorie di James-Lange e Schachter-Singer propongono che le alterazioni della sua espressione emotiva fisiologica potrebbero anche dare un feedback per ridurre l'espressione emotiva della paura. Questo studio esplora se Nature-Based Solutions [NBS] - una strategia di espressione emotiva per trasformare l'ambiente costruito - può ridurre la paura del crimine, e come si confronta con le strategie di esperienza emotiva comunemente citate -Broken Windows Theory [BWT] e Eyes on the Streets [EOS]. Per questo, nel 2021 è stato condotto uno studio di controllo randomizzato basato sulle immagini con 500 partecipanti. Una serie di immagini di controllo e di trattamento che simulano ogni strategia dell'ambiente costruito è stata vista e classificata dai partecipanti secondo la sicurezza percepita. I risultati di questo studio suggeriscono che: tutte le strategie dell'ambiente costruito aumentano significativamente la percezione della sicurezza negli spazi pubblici. Le soluzioni basate sulla natura sono un ambiente costruito efficace per ridurre la paura del crimine, paragonabile alle strategie EOS e BW incentrate sull'esperienza. Troviamo anche che l'impatto di NBS, EOS e BW è specifico del luogo. Pertanto, questi risultati suggeriscono che le NBS dovrebbero essere incluse nel toolkit di pianificazione urbana per il miglioramento della sicurezza, considerando il problema della specificità del luogo della soluzione. La tecnica presentata potrebbe supportare i ricercatori e i pianificatori urbani ad esplorare altre strategie guidate dall'espressione per rendere le città sicure per tutti.
Tackling the experience or the expression of fear? The impact of nature-based solutions on perceptions of safety in public space
Afarin, Kousha
2020/2021
Abstract
Concerns of personal safety in public spaces constrain citizens’ time-space access to employment, schooling, socializing, and recreation opportunities. One common strategy to reduce fear of crime to transform the built environment. While policy efforts have focused on creating urban environment transformation that directly targets the conscious emotional experience of fear of crime, James-Lange and Schachter-Singer theories proposes that alterations of its emotional physiological expression could also feedback to reduce fear emotional expression. This study explores whether Nature-Based Solutions [NBS] - an emotional expression strategy to transform the built environment - can reduce fear of crime, and how it compares with commonly cited emotional experience strategies -Broken Windows Theory [BWT] and Eyes on the Streets [EOS]. For this, an image-based randomized control trial with 500 participants was conducted in 2021. A series of control and treatment images simulating each built environment strategy was viewed and ranked by participants according to perceived safety. The findings of this study suggest that: all built environment strategies significantly increase the perception of safety in public spaces. Nature-based solutions are an effective built environment to reduce fear of crime, comparable with experience-focused EOS and BW strategies. We also find that the impact of NBS, EOS and BW is place specific. Therefore, these results suggest that NBS should be included in the safety-enhancing urban planning toolkit while considering the solution-place specificity problem. The presented technique could support urban researchers and planners to explore other expression-driven strategies to make cities feel safe for all.| File | Dimensione | Formato | |
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https://hdl.handle.net/10589/187235