Secucities Women: Is a Gender-Differentiated Approach Relevant in terms of Urban Safety?

THE EUROPEAN FORUM FOR URBAN SAFETY

HABITAT Scroll of Honour, 1998 (United Nations Centre for Human Settlements)

W

SECU.CITIES O M E

N

Is a gender-differentiated approach relevant in terms of urban safety ?

Seminar, Frankfurt, 30 September and 1st October 1999

Written by Catherine Vourc’h Project manager Gwendoline Mennetrier

With support from the European Commission “ Neither the European Commission, nor any person acting in its name, is responsible for the use that might be made of the information below.”

EUROPEAN FORUM FOR URBAN SAFETY 38, rue Liancourt 75014 - PARIS - FRANCE tel : +33-(0)140 64 49 00 - fax : +33-(0)1 40 64 49 10 Internet : http://www.urbansecurity.org E-mail : fesu@urbansecurity.org

Thanks

We warmly thank all the associations which have helped make this programme run smoothly: - Initiatives des Femmes Africaines de France et d’Europe, Arcueil (F) - Hammersmith Women’s Aid, Hammersmith & Fulham (UK) - Associazione gruppo di lavoro e ricerca sulla violenza alle donne, Bologna (I) - Fundació Maria Aurelia Capmany, Barcelona (E) - Associação de Mulheres contra a violência, Lisbon (P) - Ökumesnische Asiengruppe and AGISRA, Frankfurt (D) as well as the experts who have supported the procedure: - Anna Bofill Levi, architect, Barcelona (E) - Jacqueline Coutras, researcher, National Centre for Scientific Researches (CNRS), Paris (F) - Mary Horkan, University Women of Europe, Dublin (IRL) - Soraya Smaoun, United Nations Centre For Human Settlements (Habitat), Nairobi (Kenya) - and especially, Anne Michaud, Coordinator " Women and City ", Department of Sport, Recreation and Social Development, City of Montreal (CAN).

CONTENTS 7

Introduction: Context and modalities of the SecuCities Women project

11 12 13 14 15 16

1 - How to get onto the wrong track?

1.1- The hidden victimisation of women…

1.2- ...in private spaces…

1.3- … and in public spaces 1.4- False illusions that invalidate women’s experiences 1.5- What do the exploratory walks teach us? Six cities reply.

19 21 21 22

2 - Which gender-based approach?

2.1- Women AND men 2.2- Victims AND perpetrators 2.3- Self-confidence, self-awareness (‘empowerment’)

23 24 25

3 - Safety, a common asset 3.1- A fundamental asset linked to freedom, equality and access to common space 3.2- From men’s and women’s experience

25 26

3.3- Zero tolerance?

3.4- A common asset controlled by the cities

27

4 - A gender-based approach to urban safety 4.1- A gender-based approach is essential for understanding women’s insecurity 4.2- Violence against women must not remain a “women’s issue” 4.3- A gender-based approach to urban safety policies

28 31 32 35 36 37 40 42 43 45 46 47 48 48 49 50 50 52

5 - Redesignating public space as interaction space 5.1- Women and private spaces a story that for a long time has had no gender aspect 5.2- Public space, private space: the boundary that connects them 5.3- Exploratory walks, or space recognised as playing a part 5.4- One place is connected to other places 5.5- Women can lose by a simple functional development of places 6 - Recommendations 6.1- Introduce the gender dimension into the gathering and processing of statistical data.

6.2- Radically change the responses of the crimi6.3- Offer aid and accommodation to women who are victims of violence or of urban insecurity.

6.4- Increase the self-confidence and self-awareness (empowerment) of women.

6.5- Modify the design and planning of urban space in order to contribute to reducing the feeling of insecurity and occurrences of assault.

6.6- Develop specific urban services that give women a better guarantee of the freedom to come and go in safety.

6.7- Improve equal relationships between men and women by taking action on the dominant images.

6.8- Co-ordinate initiatives to promote a genderurban safety groups or specific local groups.

53

7 - ANNEXES

54

Taking the gender-based approach into account: rable differences between cities.

Programme of the seminar (Frankfurt, 30 September and 1st October 1999) Attendance list of seminar held in Frankfurt

61 65

nal

justice system to gender-based violence.

based approach to urban safety within local

the SecuCities Women project shows conside-

Introduction: context and modalities of the SecuCities Women project “The procedure and method adopted for the SecuCities Women project represent a departure point for policies that promote women’s liberation through reinforcing their independence and their capabilities (empowerment)”.

Sylvia Schenk, Municipal councillor with responsibility for Law, Sport, Women and Housing, Frankfurt (D)

The Frankfurt seminar, together with the action research of the European Forum for Urban Safety (EFUS) that preceded it, form part of the international desire to guarantee a safer environment for women and the children for whom they are responsible. Patsy Sörensen, a Member of the European Parliament who sits on its Committee on Civil Liberties, reminded the seminar of the acts and resolutions that express this desire, in particular: • the 1979 United Nations Convention on the elimination of all forms of discrimination against women, • the 1989 United Nations Convention on the rights of the child, • the 1993 Vienna Declaration on the suppression of violence against women, • the Declaration and the platform of action adopted during the IV conference on women held in Beijing in 1995, • the Declaration and action plan against the sex trade and the exploitation of minors, adopted at the 1996 Stockholm conference.

• the 1998 Lisbon Declaration on policies and programmes favouring young people, adopted by the world conference of ministers for youth.

The same desire also underlies the community action plan (Daphne Programme, 1997-1999) relating to the preventive measures to combat violence against children, adolescents and women that have been adopted by the European Parliament and the Council of the European Union. This programme is aimed at helping to provide a high level of protection of physical and mental health by protecting children, adolescents and women against violence (including violence in the form of sexual exploitation and sexual abuse), by preventing violence and by helping the victims of acts of violence in order, in particular, to prevent new exposure to violence.

It was in this context that in 1998, with the support of the European Union, the European Forum for Urban Safety undertook and supported hands-on research in cities that was designed to test the relevance of a presupposition according to which the phenomena of violence in an urban environment, whether objective and/or subjective, are experienced in different ways by women and men, and to promote a gender-based approach to urban safety. In particular it concerns taking the real-life experiences of women, about which little has been known until now, into account in every new project/programme/policy relating to preventing insecurity and risk management.

The European Forum has proposed its own specific procedure: an approach based on cities an approach based on the spaces within cities an approach based on the experiences of the people and groups in those spaces.

NGOs have managed the project at local level, with the participation of women from the local community, and also of partners from the local authorities, associations and civil society.

The European Forum has made available to the NGOs a tool1 for investigating and feeding-back information relating to the situation of women faced with urban insecurity. The procedure should make it possible to test the tool and to make a diagnosis; it is based on three steps: • gathering the statistical information on women and insecurity that is available from the various public organisations, in particular the municipal authority and the police, justice and health services; • organising “exploratory walks” in some spaces of the city they have chosen, equipped with a questionnaire which helps them to analyse these spaces from the point of view of their experience and of what they feel, and to describe what they consider to be the causes of real, symbolic or potential insecurity; • organising semi-directive interviews and/ or discussion groups with a sample of women.

It must be possible to take into consideration all the violence experienced by women (physical, sexual and psychological violence, and a feeling of insecurity) and all places where this violence takes place (domestic environment, work place and public spaces).

The exploratory walks incontestably played a key role in this action research.

What is an exploratory walk2?

The exploratory walk is one of the means that make it possible to make a critical evaluation of the urban environment. The procedure is based on the following principle: women are in the best position to identify the elements of the urban environment likely to give rise to the risk of assault and to affect their feeling of safety. This identification phase forms an important step in women appropriating public spaces.

An exploratory walk is a field enquiry carried out by a group of 3 to 6 people, most of whom are women. One of them may be a policewoman. Equipped with a survey guide and a map of the area, the participants identify, for a chosen site, the elements of the design that can give rise to risks of assault and cause a feeling of security or insecurity. Any site can be the subject of a safety

audit: underground garage, car park, street, alley, public building, underground station, etc. As soon as women feel ill at ease in a given place, or they feel it necessary to have “eyes in the back of their head”, an exploratory walk is justified.

To go beyond the threshold of general impressions, concrete elements of the urban environment are “assessed” by the women, such as: signing, lighting, real or potential hiding places, provisions for movement, number of passers-by, how help can be obtained, maintenance, internal and external fittings and layout.

The concept of exploratory walks was developed in Canada by the Metro Action Committee on Public Violence Against Women and Children (METRAC). This initiative has been taken up around the world: many women’s groups and local authorities have decided to act so that urban public spaces can be spaces where women also feel “at home”.

Cities were asked to support this initiative, especially regarding access to contacts with the various organisations holding information on violence or urban insecurity. Arcueil (F), Barcelona (E), Bologna (I), Frankfurt (D), London Borough of Hammersmith & Fulham (UK) and Lisbon (P) responded to this request.

Following the investigations in the cities, a seminar with contributions from politicians and scientists was intended to make it possible to collate the information and experiences. This seminar was held in Frankfurt (D). This document gives a synthesis of that seminar.

How to get onto the wrong track ?

1.1- The hidden victimisation of women…

The statistical data as generally compiled by criminal justice systems hides or distorts the truth. Women’s experience of violence is poorly recognised for several reasons mentioned by both the non-governmental organisations and the politicians and scientists invited to the Frankfurt3 seminar. Four elements were particularly highlighted: 1 - the criminological analysis of violence gives overriding importance to the public sphere, and too often still ignores the link between safety in public spaces and safety in private spaces. This does not make it possible to understand why men appear more frequently in criminal statistics while women have a greater feeling of insecurity, whatever their social status, age or origin; 2 - both sexual and physical domestic violence is strongly associated with secrecy, shame and loneliness. Women have good reason to fear reprisals and further violence if they report it or resist. The group of specialist rapporteurs before the Council of Europe in 1997 had already stressed the fact that the official statistics can never be taken as a reliable estimate of the problem, and that is necessary to break down the taboos or hidden silences, and to create a “climate of confidence” in which women can voice their fears and confront their aggressors; 3 - policies for preventing delinquency and violence centre on the aggressor and less frequently on the victim (despite the undeniable progress in this field in most countries of the Union, in particular through the action of the NGOs); 4 - the division into “instrumental violence/expressive violence” categories as suggested by criminology takes no account of the historical and cultural context into which specific violence against women falls. It ignores the perception linked to the inequalities in relationships between men and women and to the patriarchal society elements that still control us.

1.2- ...in private spaces…

Violence against women in domestic and working spaces is beginning to be better recognised in some countries, particularly by the local authorities who have to deal with the social and health problems linked to this violence. However, women still keep far too silent and authorities very often do not listen.

In 1996 the British Home Office4 established that domestic violence represented one quarter of all violent crime, that 44% (a figure that was very probably an under-estimate) of assaults against women related to domestic violence and that nine times out of ten the aggressor was a man who was well known to the victim – most often the husband (50-68 % of cases), followed by the current or former partner. In contrast, only 12% of assaults reported against a man related to domestic violence and 50% of the perpetrators were another man in the family and 6% a woman.

The British Home Office statistics had already shown that between 1990 and 1994, almost half the female murder victims in England and Wales (around 100 women a year) were killed by their partner or ex-partner, against 6% of male victims.

This domestic crime remains under-reported and police intervention is often relatively ineffective (a study in England and Wales, published in 1997, shows that almost all the women killed by their husband or partner had previously reported incidents of violence to the police). The studies show that women are at their most vulnerable when they face up to the violence. More than a third of women who try to separate from their partner can experience threats, stalking and assaults. Which could explain why violence does not generally result in separation.

The body of information gathered by the European Observatory on violence against women (now the Policy Action Centre), under the direction of the European Women’s Lobby (EWL), shows that women have good reason to fear being the victim of an assault committed by a man with whom they have, or have had, a close relationship. One woman in five says that she has herself been the victim of mental cruelty or has been threatened with physical violence, or has actually experienced physical violence,

sexual violence or violence against their pet or their possessions, and eleven women in every hundred have actually experienced physical and/or sexual violence.

An analysis of the national statistics of the fifteen countries of the Union by the EWL in 19995 showed an increase in reported crime against women which seemed to indicate that the social recognition of domestic violence was increasing.

1.3 - … and in public spaces The same analysis of the national statistics of the countries of the Union by the EWL also shows that violence against women is not confined to private domestic spaces.

Violence against women in public spaces remains unrecognised, but investigations are beginning to be undertaken in some cities where a gender-based approach has been adopted. Two factors make a powerful contribution to this: women’s organisations, and the new local urban safety policies centred on the feeling of insecurity and involving the inhabitants.

The EFUS SecuCities Women study shows in reality a great disparity between cities as to the data available on women’s insecurity6. Some know very little, others have access to studies of victims and to statistical data that includes a gender-based approach. But the safety audits, together with the discussion groups organised by the NGOs in the six cities taking part in the study, both stress the same elements: 1- real, feared or potential insecurity restricts women’s freedom of movement and independence; 2- women’s protection needs, their desire for independence and liberty, together with the reinforcement of their “empowerment” must be the key elements of a safety policy.

1.4- False illusions that invalidate women’s experiences When establishing the action priorities concerning urban safety, cities, just like the other authorities involved, take as their basis a certain number of indicators that show whether crime is increasing or decreasing. These indicators are mainly linked to police statistics that record, as far as possible, the facts reported by victims. Yet, as the most frequently reported events are offences against property (burglaries, car theft, etc.), the crime prevention programmes set up by some cities have initially been aimed at these best-documented aspects of crime. As for offences against the person, it was thought that the statistics probably reflected reality. From this data, equations were drawn up between the change in the number of reported crimes and the population’s feeling of insecurity; these equations seemed logical, and it was thought that if the number of reported crimes fell, the level of insecurity should also fall.

Another example: statistics and victimisation surveys show that young men are the prime victims of violence in public spaces.

However this data cannot be used to remove the fears of the elderly. Only an enquiry involving the latter can make it possible to understand that what causes the fear of delinquency connects that fear with helplessness and vulnerability; these are characteristics of the elderly (above all elderly women) who express a high level of anxiety and for whom becoming a victim can have a devastating effect.

The logic of a statistical correlation between the number of reported crimes and the level of insecurity is worthless and not a means of understanding women’s insecurity and of remedying it. Although the level of reporting tends to increase following awareness-raising campaigns, it is known that, overall, only around 10% of crimes committed against women, particularly sexual assaults, are reported to the police. Yet it is these figures that are often used to demonstrate that “women should not be afraid because in such and such a neighbourhood the number of sexual assaults committed in public spaces has fallen by X% in recent years”.

Merely looking at police statistics in fact invalidates the experience of women who are told that they have no “objective reason” to be afraid. It is then thought that the best way of reassuring women is to tell them that they should change their perceptions on the basis of the variation in the number of reported crimes, that they must make themselves see reason and that when all is said and done, it is they who are responsible for their insecurity. Surely this approach, conveyed by prevention agents motivated by the best intentions, risks increasing women’s alienation and making their insecurity into a question of individual perception and not of collective responsibility. This question was asked at Frankfurt (D).

1.5-W w lry p ex o td a h . y rp ix S ? u stech lk a Exploring the links between town planning and safety is still in its infancy. Part of the information is very confidential or difficult to access, as Anna Bofill Lévi, an architect, reminded the meeting: • police statistics do not generally specify if the assault took place in a public or private space; • there is little or no monitoring of both general and concrete data over the whole city. Only data on some at-risk neighbourhoods is available; • victimisation surveys, as at Barcelona, establish a sophisticated mapping of safety and fear but with no differentiation by gender; • criminal statistics do not usually differentiate by the sex of the victim.

The only information on women’ safety and physical space comes from consulting women. This is the case with the exploratory walks, the idea for which was imported from Canada and which were introduced at the beginning of this report. It is also the case with the studies carried out by the M.A. Capmany Foundation, particularly in the ten districts of Barcelona. These were organised in 19997 by the Council of Women in the Town Hall, on the occasion of the Barcelona Women’s Congress, when the urban area was approached in the same way as other themes (health, etc.).

In relation to public spaces, the conclusions of these investigations are identical: the feeling of insecurity is always stronger in large cities and lessens as the size decreases. The women’s exploratory walks in the six cities of the SecuCities Women study point out almost exactly the same factors of insecurity linked to urban space (although it is not possible to exclude the influence of the analysis questionnaire in this analogy). These factors are hardly surprising, and night magnifies all of them: • deserted and empty streets and spaces, or those that empty in the evening • dirty spaces, badly-maintained parks and gardens • subways, car parks, the poor configuration and length of underground station passageways as well as connections between the various transport systems • recesses, bushes and other possible hiding places • small transition spaces between private and public spaces, such as the entrance halls of buildings • the absence of call points or public telephones (mobile telephones give security) • areas where it is difficult to find your way due to the lack of clear signage • city black spots where “worrying” people move about and create suspicion, groups of men, drug dealers and addicts • poor or inadequate lighting of public spaces • the concrete walls of some squares or streets • the absence of taxis, too few buses The women of Arcueil (F) noted that these factors were probably not very different for women and men, but that women are perhaps not afraid of the same thing (fear of rape and sexual assault) and that the risk is not the same.

Regarding domestic violence, the enquiry led by the M.A. Capmany Foundation in Barcelona listed the factors that can influence the behaviour of people who develop aggressive behaviour towards women: division of labour in the house, distribution of space, the allocation of space to specific roles, the fact that the only room they can call their own is the kitchen. Data on this point is again much too rare.

An important point – and one to which the exploratory walks draw our attention – should be made: the feeling of insecurity is in direct relationship with the quality, comfort and cleanliness of the area. The story of an exploratory walk on the approaches to a bridge that was awarded a prize in 1986 for the quality of its design and since then has been transformed into an “problem area”, is a good illustration of this link: “The approach to the walkway over the green is graffiti, litter and quite unpleasant –smelling of urine. It is deserted and feels isolating. There is nobody on here coming up. There is strip lighting on the main part of the walkway but it is not terribly good lighting. The walkway feels very deserted. It needs cleaning up, it feels very dirty on the main part of the bridge. There are two sides to the bridge and you don’t know which side you are meant to walk . Its not pleasant at all up here.” Participants were amazed to see a plaque over the entrance to the main section of the bridge, stating the bridge had won first prize in a competition in 1986 for best design. “I am amazed to see a plaque saying that the bridge had won a competition for best design, and that it is seen as an improvement to that area. I don’t think we feel that way about it.”

Extract from the report of the exploratory walk at Hammersmith and Fulham (UK)

Which gender-based approach ?

“You must be able to look at the world through a woman’s eyes. But also with a man’s eyes”. Lalla Golfarelli, President of the Italian Forum for Urban Safety “Specific research on women was started in Frankfurt and is a good thing to deal with the insecurity problem that women AND men have in cities.” Lieve Van den Ameele-Steller, Ökumenische Asiengruppe, Frankfurt (D) “To prevent gender violence, it is not enough to bring out coercive police or legal measures that protect victims and define as an offence any form of violence against women; the mentality and attitude of the whole of society must also be changed to advance towards respect and tolerance in equal relations.” Pilar Lledo, Fundació Maria Aurelia Capmany, Barcelona (E) The gender-based approach is historically linked to the wish to escape from the clandestine nature of the discrimination and violence that is imposed on women and hidden by the dominant images. The United Nations define gender violence as any act of violence based on belonging to the female sex and which can result in physical, sexual or psychological harm for the woman,

together with the threat of violence and the loss of liberty in public life and in private life. All countries have signed the declaration recognising that all forms of violence against women intended as a threat to liberty, equality or dignity for reasons of gender constitutes a violation of human rights.

Violence against women and the real, potential or imagined insecurity caused by it are recognised as a demonstration of the unequal social relationships that exist between men and women and is based on a cultural standard of men having power over, and control of, women. Men’s power or lack of power is not the direct cause; also required is a tendency for some men to resort to violence when the power and control to which they are entitled are put at issue or threatened. For violence against women to occur, there must be “authorisation” and “consent” for men to choose violence to claim what they think is their right8.

Understanding the mechanisms that lead to this insecurity and wanting to change them invites taking the views of both sexes into account, introducing “the other person” involved in the debate and transforming cultural images. This was vigorously reiterated during the Frankfurt seminar.

2.1- Women AND men The gender-based approach is often assimilated into the approach from the point of view of women. This women’s point of view is beginning to emerge from the secrecy in which it has been confined by long male domination and discrimination. The United Nations Peking Conference provided this necessary view of the world through women’s eyes, and much remains to be done in this direction. However, we were reminded here of the importance of integrating the gender-based approach into the mainstream and of making it into a structural factor of the policy for the whole city and not just for the woman’s city. It is still very rare for this procedure to be adopted.

2.2- Victims AND perpetrators The gender-based approach must take into account the specific risk and the particular fear that women have of experiencing violence, but without locking them into a position of victim and without making do with measures such as self-defence classes or urban lighting which, incidentally, run the risk of increasing anxiety. This is why it has also been suggested that an approach by perpetrators (real or symbolic) is developed, and in particular an approach that takes an interest in male non-violent sexual behaviour and female aggression. Victims and perpetrators must be approached by gender. A interest must be taken in the mechanisms by which images are formed and in the mechanisms that lead to ordinary violence. This means taking an interest in both the women and the people who experience ordinary violence; and in the people or social groups who cause it. It is difficult to separate whose who experience it from those who cause it. All violence is a response to other violence. It is impossible to separate on one side those who are “only victims” and on the other side those who “only commit violence”.

2.3- Self-confidence, self-awareness (‘empowerment’) The gender-based approach must not fall back on a women as victims/men as aggressors confrontation (real, symbolic or potential victims or aggressors). It is essential to develop women’s capacities to defend themselves and to reinforce the sense of self and the self-respect that are indispensable to reducing their vulnerability. Our body transmits our thoughts, impressions and perceptions.

It tells others how we are feeling, how we perceive them and how we are responding to the situation. With our body we can transmit a signal that says “I have confidence in myself, I’m strong” or “I’m afraid”. Threats, assaults, rapes, incest, ritual abuse and other forms of violence are used to do harm and to show women that they do not have ultimate power over their lives all the time.

Women have to assert that they have power over their lives. Women’s participation in decision-making, in political life, at all levels of government is in this sense a major objective of our democracies. If women do not participate in political decisions, the gender-based approach itself can become a trap that closes on women, confining them in specific programmes, services and actions (psychological, social and town-planning related).

There are similarities between accessing politics and accessing the city - that complex political arena, that meeting place characterised by competition and negotiation. Is it really possible to access one without the other? The women in the SecuCities Women study replied “no”.

Safety, a common asset

“Safety is a common asset. By common asset we mean that the city is for everyone, is shared, a complex space and a space of tolerance.” Clotilde Tascon-Mennetrier, Director of programmes of the European Forum for Urban safety “A city that is safe for women is safe for everyone. A city that is safe for men is not safe for everyone.” Tamar Pitch, member of the Scientific Council of Città Sicure, quoted by Bologna (I) “Safety policies must be based on values of solidarity and co-responsibility. All public services must take part in it and all citizen’s groups must be present in areas where safety plans are set up. Only in this way is it possible to confront the inequalities that create social exclusion and generate violent attitudes.” Pilar Lledo, Fundació Maria Aurelia Capmany, Barcelona (E) “Women have gathered a consensus on their lack of rights. Not being able to go where you want at night is a lack of right”. Maria Shearman De Macedo, Associação de Mulheres contra a violência, Lisbon (P)

What urban safety do we aspire to? “We want a city of interaction, of activity and walking, of projects and creation, fluid and desirable, a city for all.” (European Forum for Urban Safety, Preparation of the Safety and Democracy 2001 cities’ manifesto).

3.1- A fundamental asset linked to freedom, equality and access to common space The women in the SecuCities Women study identified safety in terms of access to an asset that should be common to all: the freedom to come and go. And not as an asset that could only be defined in negative terms (less crime, less barbarism, fewer dark corners, etc.). What is wanted, what is aspired to, are spaces of freedom that are considered to be just and necessary. What must be discussed is an equal right for all to public space, of being able to come and go in safety. They noted that it is more convincing to relate the question of violence against women to these principles than to keep to a statistical approach to incidents and to urban design measures, necessary as they are.

3.2- From men’s and women’s experience It must be possible to analyse what insecurity means for the men and women living in cities, from their experiences. Otherwise, any emergency or preventive solution will not only be inadequate but will produce a distorted view of the problems and have unwanted effects. Considering insecurity from the point of view of what people feel gives a definition to the insecurity that includes elements that are not perceived by crime statistics, particularly: • psychological violence and ordinary aggression, which is barely “reportable” • factors related to the urban environment, to the quality of spaces and the way they are maintained • the importance of domestic violence or of that committed by people known to the victims • the role of the images and portrayals that people project onto the space, and those that the space projects onto people.

It has been said: going by the police statistics makes it impossible to understand why a drop in the number of reported crimes and offences is not automatically accompanied by a reduction in the feeling of insecurity.

3.3 - Zero tolerance?

There were no exchanges on the Zero Tolerance concept and it seems that there was no consensus among those taking part in the Frankfurt seminar. However, it is difficult not to question the tension between on the one side the gender-based approach to safety as demanded by women, which takes account of what people have experienced and includes otherness, and on the other hand a procedure that calls on criminal justice in the name of a continuum of violence where the worst explains everything and where all violence is (at least potentially) the worst possible. Zero tolerance is a position that translates into policies, noted Michel Marcus, Executive Director of EFUS: • firstly, the slogan is taken up to justify penalising the behaviour of young people in our societies. Do the supporters of Zero Tolerance also take responsibility for the risk of seeing young people as potential enemies and treated as such in our public policies?

• Next, Zero Tolerance implies a right to examine all our behaviour. Do we want the police to intervene every time there is violence? A major question that affects the development and organisational strategies for our cities and our society.

• Finally, Zero Tolerance makes it possible to think that criminal justice gives us satisfaction. Yet it has been established (thanks notably to victimisation surveys) that an infinitesimal minority of incidents of violence against women (about 3%) are legally punished.

3.4- A common asset controlled by the cities It is within the context of runaway urbanisation and a major transformation in the economic and social fabric of local communities that the cities of the world find themselves doing battle with various manifestations of crime that stir up people’s insecurity. The criminal justice systems, which are responsible for public safety, aim their actions at repressing these criminal acts. Several are conscious of the limits of this approach and now recognise that cities have their own role in preventing crime and in safety policies: cities are best placed to mobilise both the public and community partners and the people themselves and to take into account all the factors that contribute to the feeling of insecurity. In particular, the cities’ prime role in terms of urban planning and development makes it possible for them to improve the urban environment and to make a concrete contribution to reducing fear and the incidences of assaults carried out in public places. For example, according to the elected representatives of these two cities, it is in the Prevention and Safety Communal Council of the city of Frankfurt (D) and in the Municipal Council on Preventing Delinquency in Saint Denis, Réunion (F), that women’s insecurity has been most effectively tackled.

A gender-based approach to urban safety

“To a certain extent, the raising of public awareness regarding the insecurity experienced by women in cities historically precedes the development of the actual field of urban safety. From the end of the 70s, in North America and Europe, women took to the streets in their thousands chanting “The street, the night, women with no fear” (the Quebec women’s version of Take Back the Night). They were claiming their right to use public spaces without becoming victims, particularly victims of sexual assault and of the effects of that potential threat: the fear of moving freely, the fear of living life to the full.” Anne Michaud, Coordinator of the “Women and Cities” programme, City of Montreal (CAN) “And yet, in spite of everything women continue to live their lives, even if they have to draw up safety strategies for themselves.”

Silvia Calastri, Associazione gruppo di lavoro e ricerca sulla violenza alle donne, Bologna (I) 4.1- A gender-based approach is essential for understanding women’s insecurity The necessity of integrating a gender-based approach into urban safety takes on its full meaning if we really want to understand the mechanism of the insecurity experienced by women and act on all the aspects that cause it. All the women who took part in the exploratory walks, although different in age, education and social and family background, said that they had experienced an episode of violence, some during childhood or adolescence, and spoke of their past and their position as women as elements that cannot be put to one side when evaluating the feeling of urban safety / insecurity.

All were aware • that being a woman meant dealing with a long list of “do not” in order to remain safe; • that the insecurity felt by some women, although they may be very different one from another in age, social condition, work, etc., is strongly internalised and results from the relative physical vulnerability of women, subject as they are to more real, symbolic or potential threats than are men.

Two reasons were given by the women: on the one hand, they were brought up to play a role that prevents them from taking control of their own space; on the other hand, there are real safety and danger factors that a woman has to take into account to protect herself.

They indicated several strong characteristics of insecurity that they feel: • women fear for their women’s bodies. It is a fact that they are over-represented in sexual assaults (the data must be qualified by the sexual victimisation that men also hide); • violence is not limited to physical violence (several said that psychological violence was feared as much as physical violence); • women are afraid of certain places (stations, bus stops, places with no human presence, passageways, subways, etc.) especially at night and do not feel free to come and go as they please. The urban environment (design and what happens there) is an essential safety/insecurity factor (it is not said that it is any different for men); • domestic violence, or violence committed by a partner or ex-partner occupied a very important place, very often hidden, in their daily life; • there is not a watertight seal between insecurity in private space and insecurity in public space.

They gave converging definitions of violence that do not directly relate to the criminal justice categories in : • the action of someone against your wishes, • an attack on physical and mental integrity, • a restriction on the personal liberty to come and go, • a daily experience, • an experience linked to travelling or going to work, at night, because of being alone.

They specified that although not all the fears and violence are caused by men, it is undeniable that men occupy a central role in it, in the events and in the images.

The women from Arcueil (F), Frankfurt (D), Hammersmith and Fulham (UK) and Lisbon (P) also stressed the particularly difficult situation of women who were recent immigrants and of some ethnic minorities who were victims of insecurity made even worse by the dominant men/women relationships in the culture to which they belonged (polygamy that leaves second wives with no rights, confinement in the house, mutilations, etc.) or linked to some economic and social conditions of immigration (prostitution and slavery in particular). Violence that is made worse by the solitude associated with language, with illiteracy or with semi-illiteracy, with taboos on domestic violence, with racial discrimination, even with the fear of police checks and expulsion.

The report is unanimous among the women in the SecuCities Women study and the scientists who took part in the Frankfurt seminar: the access to data (social, legal, police, health, etc.) based on the sex of those involved is indispensable if you want to get a true picture of the situation. Processing this data by mixing the responses from both sexes masks fundamentally different realities and gives an abbreviated image that does not match the facts, either in relation to how women live, or to how men live.

An example illustrates this: since the start of the 90s an annual survey in Montreal (CAN) relating to whether people are afraid of walking alone in their part of town, shows that 60% of women express this fear, compared with 15% of men; by combining these percentages it could be said that 37.5% of those living in Montreal (the average of both figures) are afraid of going out alone at night in their part of town; yet this combined figure corresponds neither to women’s experiences, nor to men’s, and meets neither target; it proves useless both for understanding the situation and for changing it.

Are women right to have these worries? Yes, reply the facts. Mary Horkan, President of University Women of Europe, pointed out that violence against women has been recognised as one of the most determining elements in the inequality of women. Many studies stress women’s fear of crime and show that what happens in cities, whether in public or private spaces, often fully justifies women’s fears.

It was an approach by gender in the 1996 British Crime Survey - it must be here reiterated - that made it possible to bring to light some key elements in women’s insecurity, such as: • domestic violence represents a quarter of violent crime, • 44% (very probably underestimated) of the violence against women concerns domestic violence, • 90% of this violence is committed by a man on a women who is his partner or ex-partner.

In contrast, only 12% of reported assaults on men concerned domestic violence and 50% of the perpetrators were another man in the family with only 6% being a woman. According to the British Home Office statistics, an average of about 100 women were killed each year between 1990 and 1994 by their partner or ex-partner in England and Wales, or close to half of the women murder victims (compared with 6% of male murder victims).

4.2- Violence against women must not remain a “women’s issue” “Integrating the gender-based approach into urban safety also goes beyond the actions to be taken to increase women’s safety. We must avoid the trap of reducing it to this single dimension and so creating a new activity that would be in the margin of all the other dimensions of urban violence and which would again rest solely on women’s shoulders.” Anne Michaud, Co-ordinator of the “Women and Cities” programme, City of Montreal (CAN) The demonstrations at the end of the 70s, when women demanded their right to move around freely and without fear, formed the start of a collective awareness that in many countries caused social and public resource allocation policies to be set up which tried to tackle the up to then hidden scourge of violence committed against women. The early demands of the women’s movement have given way to the development of a complete sector of activities directed towards prevention, raising awareness and victim support. The militants have had to take on the role of managers and participants in many services financed by the various levels of government: women’s centres, safe houses, hot lines, help centres for the victims of sexual assault, etc. The researches, surveys, enquiries and evidence of assaulted women made it possible to give substance to the problem and to raise awareness in the general public. In parallel, the development of international solidarity and the existence of forums such as those of the United Nations have increased the pressures on Member States to set up the necessary measures to eradicate the violence committed against women.

During the 80s, the more the problem of violence committed against women throughout the world was documented, the more the importance of its manifestations in the private sphere in the form of conjugal violence, sexual assaults, incest, murder, etc. was realised. Curiously, even though it was obvious that the problem was a component of relations between men and women, the problem of violence committed against women caused a specific action sector to be set up in which women were again the principle people involved. The raising of men’s awareness in the opinion of their peers is still minimal and the process of making men – particularly the young – responsible, remains an immense task that is still to be accomplished. This difficulty will remain as long as violence committed against women is considered to be a “women’s issue”, thus making it into a marginal problem, out of the mainstream.

4.3- A gender-based approach to urban safety policies Access to data broken down by sex and age gives a more accurate view of the problems, but it is what is actually contained in the urban safety programmes that must integrate the gender-based approach and vary according to the groups involved. The genderbased approach becomes a requirement if it is recognised that it is women who suffer most from insecurity and that, as a result, the solutions that are good for them are also good for everyone. However, for this approach to be viable, it must be based on the experience of the women themselves.

The advantage for those involved in local safety policies of listening to the reality of women also stems from the fact that women are particularly affected by urban design choices, the organisation of public services, the mix of urban functions, etc. It was through recognising the insecurity of female evening travellers and thanks to the joint action of women’s groups and local authorities that the “Between two stops” service was set up in Montreal (CAN). This allows women of all ages to get off a bus wherever they wish in the evening so that they can get closer to their destination. This recognition of the view expressed by women on the urban environment has also given rise to remarkable improvements when exits from the Montreal underground stations are renovated, such as increased visibility from glazed frontages, adequate lighting and access to public telephones.

The exploratory walk procedure forms part of this spirit and represents a new way for women to take over urban space through having a concrete influence on its design and the way its services are organised.

Integrating the gender-based approach with urban safety policies touches the heart of the social relationships between the sexes; it shows the ultimate form of the inequalities by revealing the impact on women of the violence committed against them. Therefore the messages to be given to women and girls will place the emphasis on the development of autonomy, of self-esteem and of empowerment, while those directed towards men and boys will probably deal with the promotion of equal relationships, respect for other people and making them aware of their responsibilities when faced with controlling or violent behaviour.

Redesignating public space as interaction space

“The interaction value of public space is central for women. Many have nowhere else to find it.” Jacqueline Coutras, researcher at the National Centre for Scientific Research, Paris (F) The women associated with the exploratory walks said that they liked the work, getting involved in their city, their neighbourhood and the local spaces over which they have most control. The architect Anna Bofill Lévi strongly declared that their view of the city was indispensable for establishing new parameters and designing the city of the 21st century. She stressed that it is essential that women become involved, that groups and associations are created for women to participate in designing cities and that the set of values that up to now has been essentially male is widened.

Safety, the fact of feeling free to come and go is a question to which designers, promoters and town planning decision makers and architects do not give much consideration, stated Anna Bofill Lévi. Architecture, and by extension the part of town planning that is concerned with designing public spaces, squares, parks, etc., has for the last ten or fifteen years encouraged an aesthetic approach that has had too little regard for “common sense”. A procedure where in short the understanding of social relationships and concern for assaults, customs and the perceptions of the inhabitants, were missing.

5.1- Women and private spaces: a story that for a long time has had no gender aspect How, in our western societies and particularly in research, has women’s insecurity in public spaces been dealt with up to now?

Jacqueline Coutras replied: safety has always been linked first to economic, ethnic or cultural social exclusion. And social exclusion is thought of in gender-free terms; the at-risk groups are analysed: the unemployed, people living in problem areas, etc. and social, cultural, ethnic, etc. measures are proposed. The fact of the differences between men and women was not seen as important. The attention paid to elderly women in public spaces and the search for suitable solutions will increase, but isn’t it

usually because of their numerical superiority, without however the question being asked in gender terms (with some notable exceptions as in some German cities)?

Women have had a major presence in public spaces since they have begun to have a major presence in the world of work. This development is taking place in insecurity (or a feeling of insecurity) that is particularly strong for this social group, for two reasons: on the one hand, insecurity is increasing for all categories of the population in the modern city, in particular for women who have no tradition of it; and on the other hand, public space itself has no tradition of welcoming women, except in specific cases. Although the question of women’s insecurity in public spaces has been asked for the past twenty or so years and although research has been concerned with it, this is not because women’s insecurity did not exist before the 70s. It is because women were not admitted into public spaces before then. “To talk about violence shows that progress has been made: we are beginning to see women in public spaces,” remarks Jacqueline Coutras.

It is remarkable that the revelation of women’s insecurity in public spaces is occurring at the same time as the revelation – which is older but still largely incomplete – of violence in private spaces (at home). This insecurity is even more painful because this “modern” private space is supposed to be protective (the cocoon), the ultimate refuge, and that it is the only space where this function is expected. In the event of failure of the private space, there is nothing to replace it, whereas you think you can escape from public space into your private space. Do the public authorities who impose curfews on children know where they are often sending them, and to what they are exposing the families? …

5.2- Public space, private space: the boundary that connects them “We mainly give help to the victims of domestic violence, and it was interesting for us to start from this perspective of violence against women in the context of the family and the home to direct ourselves more towards urban safety. Urban safety also includes family life. We must explain that to the public. We cannot improve safety in public spaces without also dealing with private violence.”

Maria Shearman De Macedo, Associação de Mulheres contra a violência, Lisbon (P) “When there is violence in the home, women and children are psychologically and physically at risk. Persistent violence undermines women’s confidence, causes fear and breaks their spirit.” Mary Horkan, President of University Women of Europe, Dublin (IRL) Not recognising the impact of all the violence committed against women, and seeing only the violence committed in public spaces as a factor of insecurity for women, leads to fallacious reasoning, such as: “because the majority of sexual assaults are committed by men whom the women know, they are not justified in being afraid of being assaulted by unknown men and so in restricting their movements in public spaces at night”. As if the fact that a women suffers violence from one of the men around her in a private place makes her more confident when meeting unknown men in a public space. And as if the real or potential insecurity experienced by women in public spaces is something that is understood.

The concept of a “continuum of violence” (violent acts are linked to each other in their image as in their effects) has been suggested as a means of describing both the many forms of victimisation experienced by women and their interconnecting impacts. Anne Michaud pointed out that women’s insecurity, like everyone’s, is not only linked to physical assaults in public spaces, but also to the other forms of violence against them, both in the private sphere and in the public sphere. This is in addition to all the socio-economic inequalities that still exist between men and women. The poverty, single motherhood, illiteracy and isolation experienced by elderly or immigrant women and poor housing and mobility conditions are some of the factors that undermine the self-confidence and self-awareness that are the basis for feeling safe.

To say “all violence is linked” is to recognise that the boundary between private space and public space is not watertight, just as it is not watertight for those children who have suffered their parents’ violence and are at greater risk than others of becoming violent adults both inside and outside the home. But for all that, is it possible to make recommendations that do not distinguish between public space and private space? The answer is controversial. The Frankfurt seminar reflected two approaches: • a first approach puts forward a view that the way to reduce the fear of crime and examine the causes of and conditions for crime against women is to call into question the public/private division that is supposed to have been an obstacle in the past to the recognition of domestic violence. “The fear of crime that women feel is not confined to a single arena.” And we must guard against summary declarations such as “the victims of street crime are more often men and the victims of domestic violence are above all women” or “men are victims of assaults by strangers, and women are victims of assaults committed by those around them”; • a second approach reminds us that the legal status of public spaces and private spaces is different and that because of this the status of the violence that takes place there and of the insecurity that exists there is different, “even if it ends up in the same way

in hospital”. With some exceptions, the public authorities cannot intrude into private spaces. Are we ready to get rid of the boundary that connects and separates private space and public space, the threshold between the “tepee” and the “prairie”9?

Public space, the space for meeting and interacting, contains a certain tension and a certain insecurity, Jacqueline Coutras reminded us. The possibility of insecurity forms part of the very definition of the space. Isn’t that the reason why the “group” has always been concerned to manage it by formalising rules that must be shared and respected by everyone? Public space is the “common asset” space, where people are equal. To guarantee access to it and its equality, you must have the law on your side: the law that says you are equal in the public space.

Neither completely public nor simply private, intermediate spaces occupy a fairly specific place in women’s insecurity. Women have designated two types of intermediate space (without raising the question of their legal status): • on the one hand, the private spaces that are open to the public, such as shopping complexes, large cultural facilities, sports stadiums, or public transport. Their size, the flow of people passing through them, eating, drinking or working in them and the legal prohibition on discriminating on who can enter, make them, in the view of the inhabitants, public spaces, the only difference being that the control of incidents and surveillance are not in the hands of the public authority; • on the other hand, the multitude of small private spaces that are accessible to everyone, such as building entrances, the communal parts of blocks of flats, courtyards, etc. which are too small to be monitored and too isolated and scattered to be under the informal control of the city crowds. The exploratory walks reveal that for women these spaces harbour fear, tension and real or potential violence. Yet they are very often part of the chain of the urban fabric, the transition between public space (or that open to the public) and domestic space, the door to the prairie, the threshold of the city’s tepees, that is crossed or approached several times a day.

5.3- Exploratory walks, or space recognised as playing a part “The safety/insecurity of physical spaces, whether real or perceived, also depends on the physical shape of the space. Spaces can create sensations of insecurity, safety, comfort. They can also dissuade real violence or provoke all sorts of uncivil, violent or even barbaric behaviour.” Anna Bofill Lévi, architect, Barcelona (E) It is impossible to study insecurity without also taking an interest at the local level and without taking on the views of the people.

The method of the exploratory walks entrusted to the NGOs expresses the wish to bring together the experience of women and the formal characteristics of the built environment in which this experience is situated and on which it is built. The women carrying out the walk asked themselves what the space allows, authorises or prohibits… They worked on values which form so much of a consensus that no-one bother to explain them any longer. For example: “Women must stay at home after 8 o’clock in the evening”. This unspoken agreement, rarely questioned, makes out that reality respects the legal equality of men and women in public spaces. As Jacqueline Coutras observed, “Except that in reality, women have no tradition of being present in public spaces. They have a tradition of absence, of exclusion”.

Through its method, the SecuCities Women study adopts a certain theoretical position regarding the status of the space and the place. It considers that the space and the place are not a simple framework, a container, into which the relationships between social groups (antagonisms or links) are put; that they participate in creating social and gender-based inequalities. Some works – such as reviews based on studying at-risk groups – consider that the framework, the space in which the interactions take place, is socially neutral and that this neutrality makes it possible to direct the study and the efforts onto the socio-economic, political, school, cultural and historical mechanisms of the domination of one sex over the other; the same goes for the policy founded on new jobs and which deals with questions of delinquency, of violence and incivility as being part of the economic, social, pathological, ethnic or juvenile problems. Such a position leads to making recommendations on the structure of society and not the built structure which has no recognised role. These approaches, summarised Jacqueline Coutras, consider urban violence to be the expression of the violence linked to the exclusion processes of our post-industrial society, just as in the past, violence occurred on the production floor that bore witness to the relationships of exploitation and domination that existed in work.

To take as a priority the formation of a link between on one side the concrete (physical) conditions from which insecurity is born and on the other hand the experience of the people, as the European Forum for Urban Safety proposed, challenges the concept of space being neutral. When the women taking part in the exploratory walks say “there must be some light”, for example, they are saying that the environment is directly involved in safety, that it is affected by the strength relationships between the social groups and that by modifying the construction of the space a contribution is made to changing interpersonal relationships. Space is not only a consequence, it also creates social inequalities: here of male/female insecurity. This position is important as it legitimises action on the space, and so legitimises the designer or those involved at the local authority to take account of the relationships between men and women. This reinforces the action and prevention strategy that is proposed.

5.4- One place is connected to other places

The place is here the level of observation. Within a safety policy, must a single place be taken into account, or a series of places?

The question and the reply are important for arguing the recommendations.

The response of the exploratory walks is that the place is not an entity in itself and that it is impossible to take only the place into account. You cannot talk about the insecurity in such and such a car park, passageway or neighbourhood taken in isolation. One place is connected to other places, a space is not a collection of places. What we want to reduce is the insecurity in a set of places, in a chain of places (urban transport managers are more and more preoccupied with the journey from door to door, knowing that it is not enough for an underground train to be clean and safe to persuade people to use it, if they have to go down a street that is perceived as threatening). We must think about the place in its relationship with what comes before and after, and think about the relationships between the public and private places that make up the space.

Beyond the physical design, we must ask ourselves what it is in this place or chain of places that authorises assaults (in whatever form) and causes or increases the feeling of insecurity. How do men and women recognise (if they do) and adopt (if they do) the codes of conduct, standards and rules (prohibitions, permissions) that emanate from the space? How can a space be the bearer of precepts and instructions that apply to individuals? Questions that the contract managers who define the orders and specifications for urban developments, and the contractors who carry out those orders, must ask themselves.

5.5- Women can lose through a simple functional development of places Must be proposed functional developments of places and links between places take account of women’s views? To reply yes is to try to give back a quality to the spaces (collections of places), to try to act on the images, portrayals and symbolic burdens that are attached to the places. But this procedure is not without danger: the danger of formalism. By favouring the spatial configuration of places and their physical design in order to make areas safer we run the risk of actually compartmentalising the spaces and promoting a policy of division into sectors (there are many examples), of allocating places to such and such a group. Yet women have much to lose from such a safety policy. “The social groups who currently ‘dominate’ the places,” noted Jacqueline Coutras, “will find other places. But what about the women? Won’t they withdraw into the home or flee to other neighbourhoods?” In this respect it would be necessary to be able to make an assessment of developments that have assigned squares, parks or public gardens (in total or in part) to certain uses, whether or not requested by the users and local people.

A procedure that would make functionalism less likely would be to integrate the necessary development of spaces (their “redesignation”) to a more global approach that takes care: • to offer new images that do not continue to deal with the universal, or in other words the masculine, • and to maintain the prime purpose of public spaces in our modern societies: moving about and meeting people, open to all categories of people.

An attempt must be made to give places another meaning, beyond the recommendations – important as they are – relating to lighting, materials or forms. In public spaces the function of interaction is a value of prime importance: if the value of interaction is removed from public spaces, where will women go to find it?

Recommendations

The SecuCities Women project, following the examination of the gender-based data available in the cities, the exploratory walks and the discussion groups, and following the Frankfurt seminar where the results were collated, allows the European Forum for Urban Safety to submit for examination several recommendations that seek to give a better guarantee of equal access to urban safety for men and women.

6.1- Introduce the gender dimension into the gathering and processing of statistical data.

“What is still secret must be brought out into the open,” in other words the hidden violence and insecurity, is the central demand of the women and women’s organisations associated with the study. This cannot be done without a change in the way the statistical data is processed, initially by the public authorities (especially the local authorities, police, justice and health). “Gender Mainstreaming” (taking the differences between male and female reality as a central rather than marginal element of policies) which Europe has undertaken and of which the SecuCities Women programme forms part, can only succeed if the gender-based data is integrated into the gathering and processing of the statistical information.

The need for disclosure was subject to no reservations on the part of the women’s organisations during this study. It must however be accompanied by some conditions. It must: • not cause more insecurity for women. If a large part of the violence against women remains hidden, it is because revealing it is a source of risk for the woman (reprisals by the aggressor she knows, breakdown of a relationship she wishes to preserve, upheaval for herself and her family). Disclosure supposes radical work on the social images of gender-based violence and on the confidence that women have in themselves, together with a radical change in the response of the social, police and justice institutions; • take the actual experience of men and women into account, in other words study insecurity at local and experience levels, making the link between what people experience and the real, physical spaces; • develop an interdisciplinary approach to urban safety.

Recommendations 1 - Generalise a gender-based (men and women) approach within the European Union and the national and local institutions that produce statistical data. The Union will set the principles and criteria concerning research and classification. Victim enquiries will take place in all cities.

2 - Take into account the various spaces and various times of insecurity and violence : private spaces, intermediate spaces, public spaces; day and night.

3 - Take into account the different forms of violence: physical or mental violence, real or feared, whether or not relevant in the legal sense.

4 - Make the information available to everyone. Produce a document common to the cities of Europe on insecurity and violence in cities.

6.2- Radically change the responses of the criminal justice system to gender-based violence.

The police and the justice system, being responsible for public safety, direct their actions towards the suppression of crime. This approach shows its limitations when is it not accompanied by specific attention to the victims.

Recommendations 5 - Improve the way victims are received in police stations. Train police staff for this and provide appropriate provisions for women who are victims of sexual violence to make charges.

6 - Be in a position to respond, through a multi-disciplinary approach, to the psychological and social aspects of the situation as soon as a report is made.

7 - Develop legal responses that are better suited to domestic violence, such as: • the possibility of the judge being able to assess the civil and penal elements of a situation at the same time; • not to adversely affect the whole family by punishing the attacker with for example a fine that also deprives the women of resources or with house arrest which can inflict an unwanted presence on the victim; • inform the victim of how her complaint is progressing; • give the victim access to legal aid; • improve the conditions for young children in particular to give evidence.

6.3 - Offer aid and accommodation to women who are victims of violence or of urban insecurity.

Public institutions can do a great deal and must do more, but everything must not and cannot come from the institutions. The nongovernmental organisations, such as those that took part in the SecuCities Women study, provide accommodation and support for women who are victims and are becoming rich resources of knowledge on a victimisation that is poorly perceived by the institutions.

Recommendations 8 - That all women who have been the victims of violence can, together with their children, be listened to, be given material and psychological help and emergency accommodation.

9 - That foreign women, whether or not illegal immigrants, can have access to common law services. That they can be supported and given information using means appropriate to their situation, in particular in relation to their understanding of the host country’s language. For this purpose, public agents must be trained to intercultural relations.

10 - That the NGOs receive the financial means from the public authorities that make it possible for women to help each other and exchange information.

6.4- Increase the self-confidence and self-awareness (empowerment) of women.

The NGOs play a substantial role that must be supported financially and developed, without exempting public authorities from their specific responsibilities.

Recommendations 11 - To guarantee the existence in cities of a structure under which women and men will receive psychological help, legal information and a logistical contribution to initiatives that reduce their vulnerability, such as: learning from each other’s experiences, being aware of the status of violence, training of women in self-defence, the presence of groups of women in public spaces at times and in places they fear …

12 - To distribute through the NGOs educational material on violence, accessible to everyone including foreign and/or illiterate men and women.

6.5- Modify the design and planning of urban space in order to contribute to reducing the feeling of insecurity and occurrences of assault.

Recommendations 13 - To introduce the expertise of inhabitants, and in particular of women, into the design and planning of urban spaces.

14 - To lead a concerted approach between local authorities, public and private organisations who are managing or fulfilling contracts, and NGOs to define urban safety standards in the planning and design of urban space. Current common principles of the women’s NGOs: • accessibility, including clarity of directions so that they can be read easily; • visibility, so that you can see and be seen; • multi-activity and multi-functionality of the environment so that informal social control is stimulated.

15 - To introduce standards relating to the prevention of insecurity through the town planning and architecture in public spaces/ collective facilities and private spaces. To ensure the application of these standards, in the same way as for the fire-prevention standards. To ensure that women take part in the European Committee on Standardisation: “Prevention of Crime. Urban Planning and Building Design”.

6.6- Develop specific urban services that give women a better guarantee of the freedom to come and go in safety.

Human presence linked to such things as business, social and sporting activities is seen as the best antidote to the feeling of insecurity and the best means of informal social control (it should be noted that an increase in police presence remains controversial, even if meeting a police patrol at night is temporarily reassuring). If this human presence is missing, especially in the evening and at night, and in some little-used neighbourhoods, it must be possible to propose services that limit risk and fear.

Recommendations 16 - To authorise, particularly at night and in little-used places, on-request bus stops and easier access to taxis.

17 - To maintain and clean spaces; dirt and abandonment always accentuates the feeling of insecurity.

18 - To install units for calling help (public and emergency telephones).

19 - To provide if necessary, in a transition phase, car parks reserved for women and close to a formal or informal control.

6.7- Improve equal relationships between men and women by taking action on the dominant images.

The United Nations 1997 Convention on the elimination of all forms of discrimination against women recognises the necessity of changing attitudes through education, not only in schools but also in the family and the whole social environment.

Recommendations 20 - To organise the exchange of practices and knowledge on an international scale by supporting meetings between women’s organisations, city networks and town planning and urban services professionals.

21 - To raise the awareness of men, particularly through their peers and also within unions and companies, to the violence directed against women in public and private spaces, and to women’s feeling of insecurity as the easiest and most accessible target of men.

22 - To take action in relation to young people, especially at school level, which is seen as a strategic place for promoting equality between men and women and for changing the dominant images of relationships between men and women. To have initiatives directed towards young people who are more difficult to reach (because they refuse to go to school, have left school, or have no permanent address).

23 - To take action at media level (press, advertising). The way the media treat women and violence is a key element in transforming images and behaviour. The media develop icons and settings that form part of the urban landscape (posters on walls, bus stops, underground stations, railway stations and street furniture) and must be subject to the same attention as urban design. A commission to monitor the way women are treated by the media could be set up.

24 - To raise the awareness of public opinion by national and trans-national campaigns. To reinforce lobbying by international governmental and non-governmental organisations, by the churches and through events such as the Women’s World Walk for the Year 2000 launched by the women of Quebec.

25 - To demand from the European Union the effective recognition of equality between men and women, in particular: • that the public tenders for European programmes provide for a “best tender” in relation to women, in the same way as there is a “best social tender”; • that parity is sought at the head of the General Directorates of the Commission (as the trend is in the European Parliament).

26 - To ensure that countries apply the international recommendations against gender-based violence and if necessary modify for this purpose the national legislation in such a way that redress against violence can be presented before the courts. The law is not enough to change people’s collective mentality. But it sets the values of respect, of dignity and of equality between men and women and makes it possible to specify the requirements relating to non-discrimination against women and to punish breaches.

6.8- Co-ordinate initiatives to promote a gender-based approach to urban safety within local urban safety groups or specific local groups.

Recommendation 27 - The consistency, multi-discipline approach and the visibility of responses to give women greater safety in cities requires coordinated initiatives, supported and evaluated within local groups that bring together all those involved in urban safety. The local authorities must play a major role in this, because it is at the local level that insecurity can be perceived and at the local level that many responses are made, particularly in terms of town planning, design and education.

ANNEXES

Taking the gender-based approach into account: the SecuCities Women project shows considerable differences between cities.

The women’s organisations involved in the European Forum for Urban Safety’s SecuCities Women project were invited to look for the available data relating to safety and women in their city. The result of these investigations shows considerable differences from one city to another and from one country to another concerning the relevance of a gender-based approach and concerning the data available. In addition, it was not always easy for the NGOs to access data which was however supposed to be public. The support that the municipal authorities gave them could have a determining influence in this.

Arcueil (F). SecuCities Women investigations carried out by the Association “Initiatives des Femmes Africaines de France et d’Europe” (IFAFE). With the help of the municipal authority.

The municipal authority and the County administrative board (women’s rights department) supported the NGO responsible for the SecuCities Women study. The main problem was the absence of reliable gender-based data. The NGO requested a meeting with elected representatives and social workers following the Frankfurt seminar. It puts more emphasis than the other NGOs involved in the study on the situation of immigrant women, in particular because of polygamy which gives the first wife access to every entitlement (particularly access to financial allowances) to the detriment of the other women, and because of poor housing, space conflicts, etc.

Women’s safety is not identified as a specific problem by the public institutions. Urban safety is dealt with in a global manner, including in the Local Safety Contract that links the City with the Government. The city has no safety diagnosis procedure that takes account of women’s specific needs.

Parameters taken into account in the statistical data: aggressor, nature of the violence, time and place the violence was committed.

The emphasis is put on aggressors in the street and more particularly on those who have been identified and jailed. Victims are not at the centre of investigations.

The women’s discussion groups organised as part of the SecuCities Women project showed in particular that women resisted speaking about their experiences of violence, demanding anonymity and going as far as refusing to speak (African women in particular) to women they did not know well enough. Their experience of violence is most often within marriage. Physical violence: battery, slaps, kicks, verbal abuse, thefts, rapes (including within the couple). Psychological violence: threats, blackmail, aggressive posters, abusive television.

Sources consulted : • an observation sheet was given to all those taking part, but not everyone replied. People met by the IFAFE: County mission on Women’s Rights (Government department), the police and gendarmerie (Government departments), the medical and social centre (municipal department), the lawyers on duty in the town hall, social workers, regional public transport representatives, members of the fire service, social housing authority, traders.

Barcelona (E). SecuCities Women investigations carried out by the Fundació Maria Aurelia Capmany. With the help of the municipal authority.

Actions on behalf of women are having some success in Spain. The NGOs receive a lot of assistance and the local authorities offer many services to women who are victims of domestic violence. All towns and cities with more than 25,000 inhabitants,

particularly in Catalonia, have services to give direct help to women who wish to lodge a complaint. Co-operation has been developed between women’s groups and women from the justice and psychology worlds. The government of Catalonia has set up a committee with the participation of all the professional colleagues involved in these problems (doctors, psychologists, sociologists and lawyers), the unions and the associations who help women, with the aim of detailing the actions to be carried out and of co-ordinating the services, the assistance and the information. In Barcelona there are two important NGOs, one centred on psychology, the other with a more legal emphasis, that receive municipal grants. These NGOs do not just ask for money, but ask local authorities and people to participate economically in their programmes.

Sources consulted : • Police statistics. Offences against sexual liberty and maltreatment have been broken down by type of offence, sex, perpetrator, victims, relationship between victim and aggressor and place since 1998. Other offences are collated in the standard way.

• Only two local monitoring agencies (Alcobendas and Barcelona). These take account of hidden victims and show that a large proportion of women do not make complaints through fear, social pressure or ignorance. From October 1999 the Barcelona monitoring agency will introduce gender variables that it will cross-tabulate with context variables (town planning, education, information in the media, new jobs for women, construction of low-cost housing and centres for the NGOs concerned with these problems) in order to analyse the way in which these variables affect the reduction in violence.

Bologna (I). SecuCities Women investigations carried out by the Associazione gruppo di lavoro e ricerca sulla violenza alle donne. With the help of the municipal authority.

There are many women’s groups and initiatives in Italy that are concerned with violence against women. In 20 cities, including Bologna, help and information centres have been opened. In Bologna, the women’s movement is strong within and outside the institutions. It is important for the police and the legal profession to take part in these networks to prevent women from remaining isolated. The “Bologna Sicura” municipal programme is leading a Zero Tolerance action with women to raise the awareness of men and the city to violence against women and to make it a cultural subject for everyone.

Although it cannot be said that the process of constructing a gender perspective on safety is complete in Italy, attention is being paid to gender differences in the theoretical and political debate. From the year 2000, crime statistics in Italy should be supplied broken down by gender (both of the perpetrator and the victim of the crime), processed by the Ministry of Interior and the National Institute of Statistics - ISTAT. Interest in trying to estimate the “hidden number" of crimes has also initiated the first victimisation surveys in Italy.

The local area of Bologna, both municipal and regional, has contributed to this process in a relevant way through the activities of varied but fairly well integrated participants such as women' s associations, public agencies, experts and researchers.

The methods adopted by the various territorial and institutional sources have considerable limitations regarding the development of gender analyses and policies suited to answering women' s needs and requests. Data collection methods are still too rarely intended to collect gender-based data. Nor do they record sexual crimes - which traditionally constitute a specific women' s issue such as domestic and sexual violence, broken down by gender.

Sources consulted : • Police. Useful data for analysing street violence; however domestic and sexual violence are often included with other violence (battery, kidnapping, etc.). No information on the victim, nor on the relationship between the victim and the aggressor.

• Justice. Data based on penal categories and not very explicit about circumstances. Gender-based approach concerns only the perpetrator, except for ad hoc studies by the courts.

• Social and health services. Women’s refuges: the direct experience of women shows that the few women who make a complaint to the police wait up to 6-8 years for a judgement. Social services: are only required to report abuses against minors; produce no other statistical data. Emergency services: no published data on violence against women, although the information gathered from patients would make it possible.

• The annual report of Città Sicure periodically supplies crime statistics and the results of opinion surveys on the issues of urban safety and summaries of findings of specific surveys. The first Italian survey that investigates the gender difference in relation to the issues of women' s and men' s perception of insecurity/safety in public spaces is the one directed by two members of the Scientific Committee of Città Sicure, in three cities of the Emilia-Romagna Region: Bologna, Piacenza and Ravenna10.

• First national victimisation survey (199711) carried out by the National Institute of Statistics (ISTAT) in collaboration with the Città Sicure Project of the Emilia-Romagna Region. Introduces the gender dimension but does not deal with domestic violence.

In particular, looks for data relating to the sexual harassment and violence suffered by women. Compares the perception of safety among men and women in Emilia-Romagna and in Italy.

• A survey produced by the Gruppo di lavoro e ricerca sulla violenza alle donne (working and research group on violence against women) on 2,000 women given refuge in the Anti-Violence Centres of the Emilia-Romagna Region in 1997.

Frankfurt (D). SecuCities Women investigations carried out by Ökumenische Asiengruppe and AGISRA. With the help of the municipal authority.

In terms of safety, Frankfurt has a tradition of approaching from the point of view of women. Specific research on women has been initiated and is relevant to meeting the problem of insecurity for women and for men. The city’s prevention Council plays an important role in regard to this, together with the neighbourhood prevention councils. It appears that women play a key role in local violence prevention policies, while men seem to be under-represented.

Actions carried out in the city concerning violence against women: surveys, studies “empowerment”, self-defence classes, communication (stickers and brochures).

Sources consulted : • Research carried out in Frankfurt with a gender-based approach shows that, for women, the feeling of insecurity can be caused by something other than urban insecurity, particularly for immigrant women. It also shows that women are not the only people to be concerned by insecurity in cities: violence in public spaces has been the public’s prime concern since violence has increased.

• A study published in 1996 as part of the city’s Construction Plan, assesses women’s needs is terms of town planning. These studies were continued in 1997 on the feeling of insecurity and town planning.

Hammersmith & Fulham, Borough of London (UK). SecuCities Women investigations carried out by Hammersmith Women’s Aid. With the help of the municipal authority.

In England there is a considerable network of professionals concerned with the problems of violence against women, particularly centred on domestic violence. However these networks lack money and recognition, although the action of the NGOs is recognised by doctors and housing authorities. Money for helping isolated mothers, for professional training and to accommodate the victims of violence, in particular foreign women. The NGOs essentially depend on gifts and volunteer work, and the women themselves struggle all the time.

Hammersmith Women’s Aid has drawn up a list with a great many recommendations related to the design and fitting out of public places. These recommendations are made by the municipal authority in partnership with the police, and as appropriate, London Underground, local companies, National Car Parks and British Telecommunications. This position is the result of local in-depth investigations and is part of a remarkable partnership between the local authority and the key operators in the urban space.

The data gathered by Hammersmith Women’s Aid, in particular during the exploratory walks, is extremely accurate and abundant and shows real mastery of this method, which has already been in use locally for several years.

Sources consulted : • Police statistics (“Police Crime Report Information” and “Computer Aided Dispatch”): data broken down by gender of the aggressor and victim (with a slight difference relating to attacks on property: the police record the identity of the person making the complaint, usually a man, who is not always the direct victim). Results: 1- the majority of serious personal attacks concern women; 2- domestic violence against women is more frequent than violence against women in the street; 3- only a quarter of domestic violence is reported to the police and 7% of these reports result in an arrest.

Lisbon (P). SecuCities Women investigations carried out by the Associação de Mulheres contra a violência. With the help of the municipal authority.

The Association of women against violence, which has no government aid, has encountered difficulties from the fact that violence against women, particularly within marriage, is almost completely taboo in Portugal. Some people in charge do not want to be seen supporting a project on this subject.

The Association of Women Against Violence asks for the help of the women of Europe to carry out lobbying in Portugal. It does not think that the Portuguese authorities pay attention to violence against women. It reports that Portugal is the sole European Union country that has no specific refuge for women who are the victims of domestic violence; that the national plan against domestic violence adopted in 1999 provides not only for the creation of refuges but also for specific services and training, but that these provisions have not yet seen the light of day. A hope: the INOVAR Plan has been tested in Oporto since 1998 with the presence of women police officers to take women’s complaints about violence (particularly domestic or sexual) and should be extended to Lisbon.

Sources consulted: • Crime statistics. Show the sex of the victim, but overall are oriented on events rather than people. The crime statistics show a single specific data item relating to “women”: theft on the public highway (mugging); this therefore makes it appear to be the most frequent attack on women in the urban environment.

SecuCities Women Urban safety : must we have a gender approach ?

Seminar of Frankfurt (Germany), 30 September and 1st October 1999 PROGRAMME Thursday, September 30th, 1999 10.00 Reception of participants Focus on safety policy of the City of Frankfurt Ms Sylvia SCHENK, Municipal Councillor, Rights, Sports, Women and Housing, City of Frankfurt Bureau for Women’s Affairs of the City of Frankfurt : misions and specificities Ms Renate KRAUSS-POETZ, Director, Bureau for Women’s Affairs, Frankfurt 10.45 Opening session Ms Lalla Golfarelli, President of the Italian Forum for Urban Safety Ms Clotilde TASCON-MENNETRIER, Director of Programmes, European Forum for Urban Safety, Paris 11.00 Women and safety. What are the issues involved for the European institutions ?

Ms Patsy SÖRENSEN, Member of the European Parliament, Brussels 11.30 Does gender matter ? If so, why ?

Ms Anne MICHAUD, Coordinator " Women and City ", Department of Sport, Recreation and Social Development, City of Montreal 12.00 Discussion 12.30 Lunch 14.00 Round table : Is there, throughout cities, a safety assessment which integrates feminine specificities? Experiments conducted in six European cities.

Moderator : Ms Soraya SMAOUN, Urban Safety Expert, United Nations Centre For Human Settlements (Habitat), Nairobi Laureline DAOUST and Damarys MAA (IFAFE, Arcueil), June KATHCHILD (Hammersmith Women’s Aid, Hammersmith & Fulham), Lorenza MALUCCELLI (Bologna Sicura, Bologna), Pilar LLEDO (Fundació Maria Aurelia Capmany, Barcelona), Maria Shearman DE MACEDO (Associação de Mulheres contra a violência, Lisbon), Lieve VAN DEN AMEELE-STELLER (Ökumesnische Asiengruppe, Frankfurt) 15.00 Discussion 15.30 Coffee break 15.45 Urban planning and architecture as components of safety and feelings of safety. From the conception to the appropriation of space by both sexes : what is the situation ?

Ms Anna BOFILL LEVI, Architect, Barcelona 16.15 Round table : Urbanism and insecurity. What do we learn from exploratory walks ? Reactions from six cities.

Moderator : Ms Ursula BRÜNNER, Local development and town planning Services, City of Frankfurt Laureline DAOUST and Damarys MAA (IFAFE, Arcueil), June KATHCHILD (Hammersmith Women’s Aid, Hammersmith & Fulham), Silvia CALASTRI (Associazione gruppo di lavoro e ricerca sulla violenza alle donne,

Bologna), Anna BOFILL LEVI (Fundació Maria Aurelia Capmany, Barcelona), Maria Shearman DE MACEDO (Associação de Mulheres contra a violência, Lisbon), Gina AGUILA (Ökumenische Asiengruppe, Frankfurt) 17.15 Discussion 18.00 End of discussions 18.30 Official reception at the City Hall 20.00 Dinner Friday, October 1st, 1999 9.00

Violence in public and private areas, fear of crime.

Ms. Mary HORKAN, University Women of Europe, Dublin

9.30

Round table : What do women say and expect ? What are the institutional responses ?

Moderator : Ms Ursula MÜLLER, Former Undersecretary, Ministry of Women, Youth, Housing and Social development, Schleswig Holstein Laureline DAOUST and Damarys MAA (IFAFE, Arcueil), June KATHCHILD (Hammersmith Women’s Aid, Hammersmith & Fulham), Anna PRAMSTRAHLER (Associazione gruppo di lavoro e ricerca sulla violenza alle donne, Bologna), Rosa Maria DUMENJO (Fundació Maria Aurelia Capmany, Barcelona), Monica ARAUJO DE ALBUQUERQUE (Associação de Mulheres contra a violência, Lisbon), Eleonore WIEDENROTH (AGISRA, Frankfurt)

10.30 Discussion 11.00 Coffee break 11.15 The researcher’s view Ms Jacqueline COUTRAS, researcher, National Centre for Scientific Researches (CNRS), Paris 11.45 For an integrated approach to urban safety Mr Michel MARCUS, Executive Director, European Forum for Urban Safety, Paris 12.15 Towards an integrated gender approach in politics M. René LAI-HONG-TING, Deputy Mayor in charge of young people, Saint-Denis de la Réunion 12.30 Discussion 12.45 Urban safety : is the relevance of the gender approach ?

Future outlook Ms Clotilde TASCON-MENNETRIER, Director of Programmes, European Forum for Urban Safety, Paris 13.00 End of seminar

ATTENDANCE LIST OF SEMINAR HELD IN FRANKFURT ON SEPTEMBER 30th and OCTOBER 1st, 1999 BELGIUM Antwerp Karin MARTENS, Prostitution coordinator, City of Antwerp Charleroi Christiane LABARRE, Neighbourhood mediation coordinator, City of Charleroi Brussels Patsy SÖRENSEN, European Deputy, European Parliament Inge DE WAARD, Vrouwen Overleg Komitee Laurence CLAEYS, Vrouwen Overleg Komitee Maïti CHAGNY, Project Assistant, City and Shelter CANADA Montreal Anne MICHAUD, Coordinator " Women and City ", Department of Sport, Recreation and Social Development, City of Montreal SPAIN Barcelona Josep LAHOSA CANELLAS, Director of the Urban Safety Technical Commission, City of Barcelona Anna BOFILL LEVI, Architect Rosa Maria DUMENJO, Fundació Maria Aurelia Capmany Pilar LLEDO, Fundació Maria Aurelia Capmany Alcobendas Leonardo LAFUENTE VALENTIN, Urban safety Director, City of Alcobendas Luis CORTIJO MATESANZ, Municipal councilor responsible for urban safety José CABALLERO DOMINGUEZ, Mayor of Alcobendas KENYA Nairobi Soraya SMAOUN, Urban Safety Expert, United Nations Centre For Human Settlements (Habitat) PORTUGAL

Lisbon Maria Shaerman DE MACEDO, Associação de Mulheres contra a violência Monica E. Sofia ARAUJO, Associação de Mulheres contra a violência Oeiras Paula Cristina SARAIVA, Technical Officer, City of Oeiras Nuno Catarino ANSELMO, Municipal police coordinator, City of Oeiras ITALY Bologna Lalla GOLFARELLI, President of the Italian Forum for Urban Safety Lorenza MALUCCELLI, Consultant, City of Bologna Isabella ORFANO, Consultant, City of Bologna Anna PRAMSTRAHLER, Associazione gruppo di lavoro e ricerca sulla violenza alle donne Silvia CALASTRI, Associazione gruppo di lavoro e ricerca sulla violenza alle donne Milena CHIODI, Emilia Romagna Region Roma Danièla MONTEFORTE, Municipal councilor Torino Rosanna BALBO, Technical consultant in charge of young people, City of Torino Napoli Maria Fortuna INCOSTANTE, Deputy Mayor responsible for Social Policy Enrico TEDESCO, Consultant, City of Napoli GERMANY Frankfurt Lieve Van den AMEELE-STELLER, Ökumenische Asiengruppe Eleonore WIEDENROTH, AGISRA Gina AGUILA, Ökumenische Asiengruppe Sylvia SCHENK, Municipal Councilor, Rights, Sports, Women and Housing Ursula BRÜNNER, Local development and town planning Services, City of Frankfurt Klaus KLIPP, Director, European Office, City of Frankfurt Beate COLIN, European Office, City of Frankfurt Susanne SCHAPER, European Office, City of Frankfurt Kiel Ursula MÜLLER, Former Undersecretary, Ministry of Women, Youth, Housing and Social development, Schleswig Holstein Ursula SCHELE, National Network of Rape crisis centres IRELAND Dublin Mary HORKAN, University Women of Europe UNITED-KINGDOM Hammersmith & Fulham June KATHCHILD, Hammersmith Women’s Aid Lucy REDLEY, Hammersmith Women’s Aid Bristol

Sara LUNDIE BROWN, Senior Consultant, Crime Concern Liverpool Lady Doreen Jones, Municipal councilor Graham HOWARD, Police inspector, Merseyside police Susan SIM, Superintendent of Police, Merseyside police Carol GUSTAFSON, Merseyside Police Authority FRANCE Lyon Jean WERTHEIMER, Technical Health Counselor, City of Lyon Paris Jacqueline COUTRAS, researcher, National Centre for Scientific Researches Michel MARCUS, Executive Director, European Forum for Urban Safety Clotilde TASCON-MENNETRIER, Director of Programmes, European Forum for Urban Safety Gwendoline MENNETRIER, Project manager, European Forum for Urban Safety Mariki ROGNON, Executive Assistant, European Forum for Urban Safety Arcueil Damarys MAA, IFAFE Laureline DAOUST, IFAFE Villeneuve-Saint-Georges Pascale BALLATORE, Director Animation 94