Exploring the association between environmental factors and fear of crime in residential streets: an eye-tracking and questionnaire study

Abstract

Fear of crime is one of the most significant factors affecting citizen’s quality of life. It isparticularly necessary to control the environmental factors that cause fear of crime in the neighborhood, as that is more worrisome. This study aimed to investigate women’s fear of crime in public streets in their neighborhoods and to identify the environmental factors that affect their fear of crime using a questionnaire and an eye-tracking experiment, respectively. Thirty participants watched four low-rise residential streets in Seoul and responded to a survey about their fear of crime. Through a multiple regression analysis, Factors such as “maintenance”, “pilotis”, “building entrance”, and “emergency bell” were found to largely influence fear of crime. This study contributes to the literature by identifying specific physical environment factors in parallel with eye tracking experiments, and our results have implications for future street design aimed at reducing the fear of crime.