The influence of street network configuration on sexual harassment pattern in Cairo

Abstract

Sexual harassment is a common experience for women in urban spaces. While many studies have shown the types of urban environments that are hostile to women, limited research has examined the empirical relationship between sexual harassment and the configuration of the street network. This study uses crowdsourced data and space syntax analysis to investigate the relationship of the frequency of sexual harassment to the proximity of such incidents to main streets in the central business district of Cairo, Egypt. The results show that harassment incidents are associated with street segments with high volumes of foot traffic. Unsafe space usually lacks a balanced co-presence of males and females where the former outnumber the latter. The article advances our knowledge of visibility and spatial accessibility characteristics of sexual harassment incidents and the potential impacts of urban design and planning policies on women's power and fragility.