Research: Fear also causes Estonian women to alter their movements

Research: Fear also causes Estonian women to alter their movements Many women avoid traveling alone after dark and adjust their daily routines because of safety concerns. A recent master's thesis suggests that people's sense of safety is also shaped by whether others are present in public spaces and whether help is available if needed. Rebeka Kollo defended her master's thesis at the Estonian Academy of Arts, examining why a street that is objectively safe does not necessarily make people feel safe and what role urban design plays in shaping that perception. As part of her research, she reviewed numerous studies and interviewed four women of different ages, taking evening walks with them in their own neighborhoods. She said she reached her conclusion fairly quickly. "Estonia is a safe country, and I feel that too. When I travel abroad, I feel less safe. At the same time, from talking with other women and from my own experience, I know that even a safe street does not automatically make me feel safe," Kollo said. In her view, public debate tends to focus on how to make streets safer, while paying much less attention to how people actually feel in those spaces. "When we talk about safety in public spaces, we should also consider people's sense of safety," Kollo said. Her research ultimately concluded that objective safety and the feeling of safety are two distinct concepts. Kollo's master's thesis grew out of personal experience. For her bachelor's thesis, she designed a renovation project for a social housing building in Pärnu, sparking her interest in social issues. The final direction of her master's research, however, came from her own life. "I belong to the very group I chose to study. I've lived in 11 different homes over the course of my life, which means 11 different neighborhoods. In reality, I haven't felt completely safe walking alone, especially in the evening, in any of them," she said. The thesis opens with a childhood memory. When she visited a friend's house, her friend would walk her halfway home in the evening, after which Kollo would run the rest of the way alone. "While running, I didn't notice the things that might have frightened me. I was focused on how hard it was to keep running. Under no circumstances could I look over my shoulder," she wrote. One evening, she noticed a man on her way home who began approaching her while repeatedly saying, "Hello, young lady!" Kollo ran into a store, only to discover that the man had followed her. For the trip home, she chose a longer route along a busy highway. "I needed the reassurance that I could see other people and that they could see me," she wrote. Kollo also describes experiences that shaped her sense of safety from an early age. At around age 10, she and a friend encountered a man masturbating near Pärnu Beach Park. "The man watched us while leaning against a tree and continued moving closer to us as he kept doing what he was doing, so my friend and I ran to her grandmother's home nearby." Her friend was so frightened that she wet herself. "We didn't tell her grandmother what had happened. Instead, we lied and said we'd laughed so hard that we'd both wet our pants," Kollo wrote. Neither of these incidents was ever reported to police or reflected in official crime statistics. According to Kollo, that is at the heart of the problem. "Many unpleasant incidents remain known only to the people involved because women's fear in public spaces is treated as something normal or ordinary," she said. Women fear men the most The interviews Kollo conducted for her master's thesis revealed one consistent theme: the primary thing women fear is men. She stressed that this should not be interpreted as a generalization about all men. "That certainly doesn't mean every man is dangerous. But people's perception of risk is tied to previous experiences and certain patterns," she said. For that reason, she believes the issue is not solely about the physical environment. "It's not just a spatial issue. It's a combination of physical space and social experience," she said. Her thesis also cites statistics showing that women feel significantly less safe than men in their own neighborhoods, even though serious violent crime in public spaces is relatively rare. That does not mean the fear is irrational. Many women change their behavior before anything happens, avoiding certain streets, driving instead of walking, calling friends or choosing a longer but busier route. None of these adaptations are reflected in crime statistics. Before beginning her research, Kollo was convinced that poor lighting was the main problem. "I always thought that when we talk about feeling afraid after dark, it's the darkness itself that we fear," she said. Her research, however, pointed to a different conclusion. According to Kollo, darkness affects people's sense of safety in a different way. Lighting is important primarily from the standpoint of objective safety, allowing people to see where they are going and to be aware of their surroundings. What has a greater impact on how safe people feel is what is happening on the street. The walks she took with the interview participants reinforced that conclusion. Three of the women lived in well-lit urban neighborhoods with streetlights, facade lighting and decorative holiday lights. Even so, they felt there still was not enough light. The fourth woman lived in a suburban area with virtually no street lighting. During the winter, she routinely takes walks carrying a large flashlight. According to Kollo, the flashlight did not necessarily make her feel braver. It simply made it possible for her to get around. The most important factor affecting people's sense of safety turned out not to be lighting but the presence of other people. "Most often, the feeling comes from there being no one on the street. There are very few people around, and as a woman you start to feel as though you are the object of attention for every person who walks toward you," she said. To address that, Kollo believes public spaces should provide more information and more options. "Streets should be more transparent. You should be able to make choices easily, know the quickest way to meet your basic needs and not develop that feeling of being an object," she said. She emphasized that lighting and surveillance cameras are not enough on their own. What matters just as much is whether other people are present. "The most important thing is that there are other people around and that, if a potential danger arises, you have someone you can ask for help," she said. Cities should not switch off in the evenings Kollo believes Estonia's cities still have too many single-use areas. During the day, these neighborhoods are occupied by offices, schools or other institutions, but activity disappears in the evening. "When evening comes, the streets empty out," she said, adding that urban planning should seek to avoid this by ensuring those areas remain active after business hours. Shops, cafés, bars and restaurants help achieve that, but free public spaces where people can spend time are just as important. The more people there are in a space, the less isolated individuals feel and the greater the level of natural surveillance. Kollo stressed that her research does not call Estonia's safety into question. On the contrary, statistics show that Estonia is one of Europe's safest countries. Instead, she said, the study demonstrates that objective safety and the feeling of safety are not the same thing. "A sense of safety is highly subjective," she said. Unlike crime rates or traffic accidents, she noted, it cannot be measured in the same way. That is why she believes people's lived experiences should play a greater role in urban planning. "Architecture can help shape environments in ways that reduce people's sense of danger," the author of the master's thesis said. While the built environment alone cannot solve broader social problems, it can help create places where people feel they are not alone on the street, Rebeka Kollo said. -- Editor: Marcus Turovski