See the Introduction for more information. Awareness of personal safety in urban environments is a relatively new phenomena. The objective of creating safer environments has traditionally been limited to accident prevention and the reduction of property crimes. Personal safety is different in that it focuses on how comfortable or safe an individual feels in any given situation in relation to the threat of assault or intimidation by other people . Increasing numbers of people are expressing concern for their personal safety in urban settings.
People feel afraid to use public spaces and public facilities.
This fear of violence and the perception that an environment is unsafe is, in effect, a barrier to many people's use and enjoyment of public space. Many look to crime statistics, but these can be misleading. Thus, when evaluating whether a space is safe or not, perceptions are more important than crime statistics. The issue of perceived risk is particularly prevalent in women's use of public space. Women generally express much greater levels of concern for personal safety than men do and these concerns influence their behaviour in relation to parks.