Investigation of Fear of Crime in City Centers through the Example of Beşiktaş Sinanpaşa Neighborhood

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DOI: 10.4236/cus.2017.53020    1,115 Downloads   3,172 Views  Citations

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.

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Köklü, E. and Yirmibeşoğlu, F. (2017) Investigation of Fear of Crime in City Centers through the Example of Beşiktaş Sinanpaşa Neighborhood. Current Urban Studies, 5, 356-378. doi: 10.4236/cus.2017.53020.

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