Sense of Place and Feelings of Safety: Examining Young Adults’ Experiences of their Local Environment using Mobile Surveys

Abstract

This study aims to examine feelings of safety and the correlates to feelings of decreased worry toward crime within individuals’ proximate environments. Data from adults living in Southeast Queensland ( N = 72) were collected using a mobile application. Findings of a thematic analysis of these data suggest that safety perceptions are primarily driven by (a) physical features of the proximate environment, (b) social characteristics of a place, and (c) location familiarity or awareness. This study concludes with a discussion of how these themes may be leveraged to develop more focused fear–reduction strategies that involve modifying features of the physical environment, improving social characteristics of place and increasing knowledge/awareness of place.