Fear Perceptions in Public Parks: Interactions of Environmental Concealment, the Presence of People Recreating, and Gender Academic Article

abstract

• This research examined the effect of concealment (environmental cues), presence or absence of people recreating (social cues), and gender on individuals fear of crime in a community park setting. Using a 7-point single-item indicator, 732 participants from two samples (540 park visitors and 192 college students) rated their estimates of fear of crime to 24 photographic representations of a community park. All three, two-factor interaction effects were significant in the park visitor sample, but in the student sample, only the Presence of People Recreating Gender effect was significant. These results suggest that social and environmental cues may jointly affect fear experiences and that the presence of other people recreating in a park environment and the gender of an individual may influence fear of crime when recreating alone in a park setting. Implications include design and management techniques that promote safe park environments.

authors

• Ellis, Gary

published proceedings

• ENVIRONMENT AND BEHAVIOR

altmetric score

• 1

author list (cited authors)

• Jorgensen, L. J., Ellis, G. D., & Ruddell, E.

citation count

• 65

complete list of authors

• Jorgensen, Lisa J||Ellis, Gary D||Ruddell, Edward

publication date

• October 2013

publisher

• SAGE Publications  Publisher

published in

• Environment and Behavior  Journal

keywords

• And Community Parks
• Environmental Cues
• Fear Of Crime
• Gender
• Social Cues

Digital Object Identifier (DOI)

• 10.1177/0013916512446334

start page

• 803

end page

• 820

volume

• 45

issue

• 7

URL

• http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0013916512446334