Perceptions and strategies of safety in public places in Europe

Safety of Public Places is a crescent matter of concern, moreover when it concerns the safety of more vulnerable populations as school aged children. Antisocial behavior and repeated violence and unbalanced power relations over school children from peers outside the school environment is a matter of public concerns, as these types of offences, most of the time are not reported to the police.

To ascertain the perceptions of safety of school aged children from 11 to 16 years old of Cyprus, England, Hungary, Italy, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal and Spain, and the different strategies to cope with insecurity in public places, was applied a mixed method approach balanced a European survey to 4085 students, and in-depth interviews and focus groups with nearly 400 students interviewed.

Data shows that 22, 4% of the respondents have ever felt worried on their way to and from school; there are significative differences in the grade of fear between the respondents from the countries in study, being UK and Portuguese school children, the most worried (34,5%). The ways to travel to and from school have different patterns in countries that were studied. School Bus is UK mode of transport used by 32,6%, where as public transport is used in Hungary (53,1%), Italy (42,1%) and Netherlands (26,5%). Walking is common in Netherlands and in Poland. In Portugal (22%) and in Spain (10,7%) of school aged children travel by car to and from school.

We have learned that the land between from home as private sphere and school as protected sphere is seen by European as a threat. Different countries have tried to overcome this with different strategies: community resources in UK and Netherlands and privatization of risk in South Cyprus, Spain and Portugal with parents travelling by car with youngsters.