Gender, sexual danger and the everyday management of risks: the social control of young females

Abstract

Women fear crime more than men (Cops and Pleysier, 2011), have heightened awareness of everyday risks particularly of sexual and physical danger (Stanko, 1990), and they engage in more constrained behaviours than men (Rader et al, 2007; Tomsich et al, 2011). Little research had examined the adoption of such risk management strategies and the impact of gender (May et al, 2010), in an English context. However, focusing on the most at risk age-group for criminal victimisation, 393 students completed an online survey, which was designed to assess whether gender affected the strategies they adopted to prevent victimisation of both acquisitive and personal crimes, on-campus, and to stay safe. The findings indicate that females are more likely to adopt risk-management strategies to prevent personal sexual attack during the day and after dark, compared to males. Females also adopt additional strategies after dark to stay safe. The implications of the findings to convey accurate messages about risks of victimisation are discussed.