A mixed methods approach to understanding fear of crime: towards spatially referenced narratives

Abstract

Spatial investigations of ‘fear of crime’, which are becoming more common within the discipline of behavioural geography, do not capture the motivations behind participant’s behavioural choices in regards to their fear of crime. This thesis proposes a move towards mixed method approaches aimed to capture both spatial and motivation related qualitative data. These ‘spatially referenced narrative’ approaches support the exploration of participant’s motivations for their behavioural choices, and have the potential to shed light upon power dynamics between marginalised groups and space. In order to develop the spatially referenced narrative approach coined in this thesis, I built upon Doran and Burgess’ (2012) and Sloan et al., (2016) approach to investigating avoidance behaviour in space by employing the mixed methods of sketch mapping and semi-structured interviews. Participants (n=7) sketch mapped the areas of avoidance in response to fear of crime in the Canberra CBD, while their concurrent reflections on their fear and motivations for behaviour were captured through semi-structured interviews. The interview data was coded according to Adaptive Theory (Layder, 1998) and grounded visualisation (Knigge and Cope, 2006) to reveal participant motivations for avoidance of areas due to fear of crime (i.e. avoidance behaviour). The participant experience of the sketch mapping process highlights the limits of non-narrative methods for measuring fear of crime and the need for behavioural geography to move towards more diverse narrative methods. The discussion argues for a move towards spatially referenced narratives, based on the significance of my findings. The move to participatory and narrative based approaches, as offered by the spatially referenced narrative, would represent the progression of behavioural geography towards more critical positions akin to that of critical cartography (Kitchin and Hubbard, 1999; Kitchin et al., 2012; Caquard, 2015). Further, this would pave the way to engage with “‘on-the-ground’ practical politics with (and for) those who are oppressed and excluded within society.” (Kitchin and Hubbard, 1999:198). Such a transition meets the responsibility for fear of crime research to understand and recognise the implications of participation in fear of crime research by participants, and the potential for this to enable social change. Show more