An Exploration of Safety from Crime

Abstract

The feeling of safety from criminal threats has become a critical aspect on the quality of human life. One of the indicators in identifying fear of crime is the feeling of safety (POS) level.  The objective of this study is to compare the POS in individual gated residential (IGR) and individual non-gated residential (INGR) areas.  This study found that POS is higher in gated residential areas (M=0.90, SD=0.32) compared to IGR areas (M=0.57, SD=0.23).  The results show that the rates of income, victimization, fields of employment and periods of residing in the residential areas were significant to the POS.

Keywords: Crime, feeling of safety, built environment, gated and non-gated neighborhoods.

eISSN 2514-7528 © 2018 The Authors. Published for AMER ABRA by e-International Publishing House, Ltd., UK. This is an open-access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/). Peer–review under responsibility of AMER (Association of Malaysian Environment-Behaviour Researchers), ABRA (Association of Behavioural Researchers on Asians) and cE-Bs (Centre for Environment-Behaviour Studies), Faculty of Architecture, Planning & Surveying, Universiti Teknologi MARA, Malaysia.