‘Fear of walking home alone’: Urban spaces of fear in youth nightlife

Urban spaces of fear

Fear has been analysed as an essential factor of gender inequality in the access to, and spatial mobility of women within cities (Koskela, 1997, 1999; Pain, 2001; Ruddick, 1996; Valentine, 1989), conditioning their experience and limiting their freedom of movement (Rodó and Estivill, 2016). The mobility is less controlled among men (Thomas, 2005), as women experience specific restrictions due to the mechanisms of gender normativity that rule over the exercise of an ‘appropriate femininity’ (Butler, 2004) and delve into feelings of insecurity and self-protection, reinforcing the socially produced view of women’s vulnerability (Falú, 2009; Koskela, 1997). According to Fanghanel and Lim (2015), fear and guilt internalised through traditional gender roles determine the way in which women use public spaces at night. The patriarchal gender system forces them to be careful not to attract attention on the street, avoid risks and stay safe, thus evading suspicion of inappropriate behaviours understood as transgressions of gender mandates. Women and men, therefore, use public space in a differentiating and unequal manner (Rodríguez, 2011; Velasco, 2007; Zúñiga, 2014).

There is a large body of national (Añover, 2012; Freixanet, 2011; Patiño, 2016; Rodó, 2013, 2014) and international literature (Day, 1999, 2001; Koskela, 1997; Listerborn, 2016; Pain, 2001; Sandberg and Rönnblom, 2013; Valentine, 1989, 1992) that has shown the fear of sexual violence experienced by young women in urban spaces, which makes their daily mobility more sensitive to spatial and temporal factors such as, for example, the distance they have to cover, and availability and schedules of public transport (Zúñiga, 2014). In this regard, recent evidence from the study of urban mobility by women, such as the one carried out by Lewis et al. (2020) in the London Underground, shows three determining elements of sexual harassment, including the rhythms of the city (rush hour and night), the lack of urban civil attention, and the transitory nature of the underground. The study carried out by Graglia (2016) shows how sexual violence is present in public transport in Mexico City, limiting the mobility of women. Koskela (1999) calls this ‘gendered exclusions’. Women are excluded from public space because of their gender and their fear of sexual violence. This is a reflection of unjust power relations and women’s unequal status, which at the same time contributes to perpetuating imbalances in the use of public spaces. It is yet another manifestation of gender inequality, a form of structural and systematic control and violence against women (García-Carpintero et al., 2019; Pain, 2001).

In addition to gender, there are other axes of power that contribute to creating experiences of inequality in the use of urban public space and experiences of fear. Gough and Franch (2005), who relate gender to social class, have revealed the use of public space through socio-spatial exclusions and inclusions that vary with time. Meyer and Grollman (2014), in an investigation of gender and sexuality, show how people belonging to non-heteronormative sexual orientations are significantly more likely to report fear at night than heterosexuals. Rodó et al. (2019) and Brooks (2014) analyse gender and age and refer to a greater fear experienced by younger women. Likewise, Wattis et al. (2011), who studied the negotiations of fear and risk by female students in the English post-industrial context, reveal that locality in interrelation with gender shapes the experiences of space, fear and security. Fears were frequently locally focused, linking to a fear of place and the risks associated with female student identity.

The design and configuration of public space influence safety of, and violence against women (Del Valle, 1997; Freixanet, 2011), and they also condition the way in which fear is experienced, the possibilities of response and the specific imaginary in which it develops (Rodó and Estivill, 2016). Previous studies such as Ortiz’s (2014) have shown that security in cities and the approach to violence continue to focus above all on crimes, that is, on different types of violence defined by law. Likewise, planning concerning the night-time in urban spaces lacks a gender and intersectional perspective (Ortiz, 2016), so factors such as the lack of lighting when accessing houses, in streets or neighbourhoods perceived as dangerous, and spaces with low influx of people have been identified as key elements regarding the female perception of safety within cities. These conflict points or dark spots of safety make up what we know as ‘fear maps’ (Añover, 2012).

Sexual violence in nightlife spaces

International evidence has also shown that in nightlife spaces, such as clubs, bars and pubs where young people socialise and where alcohol or drugs are consumed, young women fear sexual violence. In England, authors like Nicholls (2017) highlight how the sexual harassment and pressures towards girls are trivialised and normalised in licensed venues and account for the challenges that young women face while trying to negotiate femininity, sexualities and their safety in contemporary leisure spaces. Brooks (2014), for her part, reveals how young women’s fear of heavy alcohol consumption represents a contemporary extension of the conventional gender fear of sexual violence.

In Canada, studies such as the one carried out by Graham et al. (2014) on incidents of sexual intimidation and violence in bars and clubs reflect that 90% involved male perpetrators and female victims. Girls mostly responded non-aggressively, usually using evasion, staff rarely intervened, and bystanders intervened only in 21% of incidents, generally to help the girls, but sometimes to encourage the perpetrator.

Likewise, in Spain, the Noctámbul@s Report, which analyses the incidence of sexual violence in discos, concerts, big parties and other recreational areas with the consumption of alcohol and drugs, confirms that 57% of young women have experienced situations of normalised sexual violence in these spaces throughout their lives, something that only 4% of young men report (FsyC, 2017). In addiction, a previous Spanish study suggested that in nightlife spaces where alcohol is consumed intensively, the use of the mobile phone in interpersonal or couple relationships is also intensified – ‘sexting’, for example – and thus increases gender violence (Romo-Avilés et al., 2019).

Risk and safety negotiation strategies within urban spaces of fear

Far from remaining impassive, young women develop a wide range of strategies to manage risks and promote safety in public spaces. Following the classification proposed by Van der Burgt (2015), we differentiate three strategies: (1) avoidance, (2) confronting risks and (3) empowerment. It should be noted that young women sometimes combine different risk and fear management strategies.

Avoidance strategies involve not passing through certain places perceived as unsafe: neighbourhoods, dark places and places with few people. There is often a time dimension, which could mean not going out at night (Starkweather, 2007), or avoiding some places at specific times of the day (Uhnoo, 2008). Confronting risks strategies may involve precautions such as carrying a mobile phone to feel safer and manage risk (Starkweather, 2007), being accompanied by friends at night (Tucker and Matthews, 2001), using social or spatial skills to identify ‘safe’ and ‘risky’ places (Cahill, 2000), or training in self-defence (Hollander, 2018; McDaniel, 1993). Some examples of empowerment strategies (Koskela, 1997; Rathzel, 2000; Starkweather, 2007) include the self-affirmation that there is no reason to fear, asserting the person’s right to the city, reclaiming or appropriating space through its active use. Young women are used to withstanding feelings of fear and risk, demystifying places and gaining spatial confidence. The active use of unfamiliar public space seems to provide a sense of agency, trust and courage in young people (Van der Burgt, 2008; Watt and Stenson, 1998).

Bearing in mind all of the above, the purpose of this study is to investigate the feelings and the experiences of fear by youth in nightlife spaces, its relationship with sexual violence, the strategies implemented to combat situations of fear as well as to identify gender differences and/or inequalities thereof. The main questions addressed in the study are: Do young men and women perceive fear in the same way in recreational nightlife contexts? What are the spaces considered to be most risky? What kind of strategies do young people apply in the face of risky and fearful situations and spaces?

Unequal fear by gender

Regarding fear in recreational nightlife spaces, the results indicate a situation of generalised fear among all the interviewees, although it manifests itself in different ways. The study by Rodó (2015) showed that gender is not the only factor that influences the fear, but also age, sexuality or social class do so to a lesser extent. On the other hand, and in another contribution by Rodó et al. (2019), girls identified fear as a great determinant of their usage and experiences of specific spaces, arguing that they were afraid in specific places, at specific times and in specific circumstances. Johansson et al. (2012), in their research with young people from Stockholm and Uppsala, indicated that ideas about the threats faced by boys and girls when they move through public spaces are different, with the figure of the ‘solitary rapist’ appearing to threaten girls with sexual assault. The difference in fear between boys and girls was also addressed by Ortiz (2014), who stated that the fear or perception of safety is especially relevant to the women and marked by the violence perpetrated against their sexualised bodies, something that Rodó et al. (2019) also point out. Men worry about common crime, mainly in troubled neighbourhoods or dangerous areas, about being robbed, about being involved in a street fight or about having an accident on the street (Toro and Ochoa, 2017). Thus, the fear of being victim of a robbery or a beating, which was verbalised by men, is different from women’s fear of being raped.

Women feel more insecure, while men do not perceive nightlife spaces as a hostile territory and often feel safe in them. The intensity of fear of young women and young men in our research is also different. Where young men indicate feeling discomfort or caution only in troubled neighbourhoods and conflict zones, women mention that they experience fear as a sense of panic in many situations. Young men do not feel unsafe in the same circumstances in which young women do. They say they walk calmly through public spaces, and they are not afraid of being sexually harassed or assaulted.

F36: I feel panic even when I call a taxi; I don’t know who’s coming.

M43: I’m not afraid; maybe if I don’t know the place, then yes.

The lack of security – even in such an ordinary situation as calling a taxi – limits young women’s freedom, restricting their mobility in terms of time, forcing them to go out less at certain times of the day. In terms of space, they avoid specific spaces, which diminishes their feeling of belonging to the city and hinders their active participation in city life.

In our study, the type of fear of young men and women is different in context and form. The young women we interviewed fear sexual harassment, physical injury, being victims of sexual violence by unknown men, injuries, kidnappings, and even death resulting from sexual violence. Many of them have experienced unwanted touching, intrusive comments, cornering, groping and even masturbation by men who took advantage of crowds in the clubs and bars or in solitary places with little lighting. On the other hand, young men do not fear sexual violence, but they fear regular crime, robbery, or physical violence by other men, never by women.

Some young women think that no place is safe for them because of their gender and that they are only safe in their homes. In addition, the beginning of fear is usually related to unpleasant or dangerous experiences lived by participants themselves or told by their friends who have experienced them.

F13: I’m afraid that they’ll catch me and do something to me, that they’ll rape me, that I won’t come back home, that I’ll disappear, that I’ll end up anywhere, that we’ll end up anywhere and that I’ll be dead. I’m afraid of that, if they rob me I don’t care. (Eight other girls expressed similar sentiment.)

F23: Recently, a girl who was coming from the library was raped, see . . . [coming] from studying. (Two other girls and one boy mentioned the same case.)

The young people interviewed recognise that girls are more vulnerable and at risk of violence and intimidation than boys, even when they go in mixed groups, because, in those, girls will be attacked first.

M33: My fear is that I will be robbed or stabbed, not raped. (Four other boys and a girl expressed the same sentiment.)

M22: We feel more protected; they [perpetrators] are going to go first for the women rather than for the men. (Three other girls and one boy expressed the same sentiment.)

Public urban spaces of fear

We find differences between outdoor public spaces and indoor public spaces when it comes to the spaces of fear. The study by Rodó (2015), featuring young Spaniards, noted that fear is one of the main determining factors of the experience in outdoor public spaces. Research conducted in the northwestern region of Mexico, specifically in the states of Baja California (Lower California), Sinaloa and Sonora (Zúñiga, 2014) with the purpose of analysing some of the manifestations of violence experienced by women in public spaces, showed that men and women used and moved through public spaces in different ways, with women facing greater restrictions than men.

In our research the most feared moment for both young women and men is the route back home at night, either on foot or by public transport, mainly if they are alone. Fear also has a schedule: the time they consider most dangerous is around 3 to 4 in the morning, because the streets are emptier than in other times and there is more risk, since those who are on the streets may be affected by excessive use of alcohol or other substances.

F35: I am afraid of returning home alone, specifically at night, wherever it is, anywhere. (This same sentiment was expressed by four girls and a boy.)

F29: I am afraid when there’s nobody on the streets, between 3 or 4 a.m.

M42: The more the night goes by, the more drunk you are and the more dangerous it becomes.

In outdoor public spaces, women fear empty and dark streets, open spaces, parks, waste grounds, pavements with parked cars, building entrances and car parks. They fear being approached by an attacker at these places, especially if they are not accompanied. These are the most feared places, aggravated by whether the area is known as dangerous and poorly lit.

F29: I fear dark streets without any people, especially if you go alone. (Five other girls expressed the same feeling.)

F21: To me, the waste grounds are most fear-inducing.

F23: For me, I am afraid of parks.

Studies carried out in different sociocultural contexts point to similar results. In Toro and Ochoa’s study (2017) with 50 women aged between 16 and 36 in the city of Medellin, Colombia, women expressed fear of passing through places such as canals, wooded strips and alleys, as they lack lighting and surveillance and are often deserted. They feel safer in enclosed places such as shopping malls, universities or libraries (Toro and Ochoa, 2017).

Regarding indoor public spaces, Rodó’s (2015) research with young Spaniards indicated that girls frequenting recreational venues found indoor public spaces such as nightclubs and bars safer that outdoor spaces, despite the fact that harassment by men in these indoor venues is a fairly common experience.

In our study, the informants pointed out several places as problematic even within the indoor venues. One of them is the bathrooms, since there is no surveillance and both boys and girls converge there. There are situations of harassment of young women that are also recognised by our male informants. Other areas that young women identify as dangerous are crowded indoor spaces: the centre of the dance floor, and when they go to order drinks at the jam-packed bar, because young men harass them with unwanted touching.

F11: It is unpleasant in the restrooms . . . in a nightclub the guys were like saying ‘come in here’, like obscene things, it doesn’t make you feel comfortable either. (Eight other girls and two boys mentioned similar experiences.)

F31: In the middle of the dance floor is dangerous because if they are drunk, they can touch you since they are also closer. (Five other girls and three boys reported the same situation.)

Risk and security negotiation strategies within urban spaces of fear

Our research is in line with Zúñiga (2014) and Rodó et al. (2019) in which it is exposed that despite the fact that young women feel unsafe in recreational nightlife spaces, they continue to inhabit urban public spaces despite fear and create different strategies or mechanisms for prevention of harassment and violence, and for defence.

Starkweather (2007) identified three types of strategies in his research among students: avoidance, precaution and boldness. Among the avoidance strategies (temporal, spatial, or both) the youth he researched mentioned the situations to avoid most were being outdoors alone after dark and places on campus perceived as more unsafe (wooded area not visible from the street). However, gender differences showed that female students were more likely to feel unsafe than male students.

Our research results can also be grouped into three similar strategies: avoidance, confronting risks and empowerment. As avoidance strategies, our informants avoid spaces and times of fear. The avoidance strategies used by young women are: not stopping when walking, changing their pace, modifying schedules of going out, aligning their own plans with plans of friends, changing routines. They do not go through alleys, narrow and dark streets, and try to choose routes in well-lit avenues. They consider the width of the street, presence of blind spots or corners, possibilities of escaping in various directions, proximity to busy streets, and the type of people who frequent each place.

We were even told by one young woman that she finds it safer to go through the middle of the road and avoid the pavements and parked cars from where it would be easier to be attacked, which puts her at risk of suffering a traffic accident. Young women also avoid returning home during night hours, as they feel safer staying in the recreational venues until they close at 7–8 in the morning, waiting there until dawn for public transport to open again and when streets are safer.

M42: I try to go through the avenues. (The same behaviour was reported by two other girls.)

F41: I try to go through areas with houses.

As for confronting risks strategies, the most commonly used to prevent and/or confront male harassment is to be accompanied by a group of peers or by a friend or male partner whenever possible. One of the most commonly used confronting risks strategies is to look for the figure of a ‘male guardian’ – a friend who is passed off as a boyfriend, who acts as a deterrent and protector against other men, both while they are in the nightclub and later, accompanying the young women home.

F3: If there is a boy who is my neighbour, I’ll always talk to him in case he [is going] out that night and we meet at some time to get back together, even if we don’t go to the same place. (The same strategy was mentioned by seven girls and two ‘guardian’ boys.)

F23: I go with a friend who pretends to be my boyfriend. (Five girls talked about the same strategy and two ‘pretend boyfriends’ confirmed it.)

Furthermore, young women protect each other and often accompany each other in order to avoid the fear of finding themselves alone and being caught up in an uncomfortable situation, or a situation in which they may find themselves helpless. They use proximity as a protection strategy when they are harassed, grouping and closing the group in order to be more protected, accompanying each other to the most compromised places (bathrooms in nightclubs and bars), being alert and taking care of each other, rescuing each other if they are being harassed and using mobile phones to find each other in various spaces.

Identifying and using safe areas and spaces is also mentioned as a confronting risks strategy. These are areas with physical surveillance, such as where doormen are. They also look for areas with video surveillance and clubs and bars of a closed type with controlled access. Approaching security personnel is also a way to get out of harassment situations.

F3: I feel safer in the clubs, where not everyone can go.

F1: If men approach me, and they want to dance with you or do something more, and you don’t want to, sometimes I call the security guard and other times my friends intervene by pulling me away. (Two girls reported the same incident.)

M38: My female friend and other young women, when they go out to smoke there’s always this thing they say: ‘I’m going to stand in front of the nightclub because the doormen are there if something happens, the doormen are there’.

In relation to empowerment strategies, our study, similar to Starkweather’s study (2007), shows that some strategies are empowering. For example, active self-defence or defending one’s girlfriends, as well as emboldening oneself to face up to the risks. One of the most recurring elements for this type of strategy is the use of mobile phone technology for protection: to locate a female friend by mobile messaging when they have not seen her for a prolonged amount of time or when the friend is on the way home, which is one of the times they classify as posing the greatest risk. During the journey home, young women use strategies such as talking on the phone, using location apps and acoustic and luminous alarm systems in the event of an attack, GPS and monitoring arrival by means of messages to friends or mothers.

F37: If you maybe can’t find a friend, for example I’ll send them a WhatsApp like, ‘Where are you?’ She’s gone to the bathroom, okay, but if it takes longer than she must take, I’ll send her a message to see where she is. (This was also reported by another girl.)

F7: You let people know you made it back and let my mum or my friends know I’m on my way, that I’m arriving. (Four girls said the same.)

F46: I have an alarm: it’s a flashlight, a light where you have a little key that you take away and it beeps like the alarm when a store is robbed. When it’s night and the street is completely silent it makes a lot of noise. (The same strategy was used by two other girls.)

Another self-defence strategy is holding the keys in one’s hand in a defensive position or carrying pepper spray.

F5: I’m always calling someone and holding my keys in my hands. (This was shared by four other girls.)

F44: I have a friend who carries a spray.

Among other empowering strategies, similar to those pointed out by Starkweather (2007), is control, self-affirmation by stating that nothing is going to happen, and confidence in personal abilities and skills to cope with a dangerous situation. In our study we found stances claiming the right to travel safely in the city, and some strong attitudes.

M43: I walk more decisively.

F11: When I was harassed, I said to the men, like: listen, you’re being a nuisance, go away . . . We’ve had enough of putting up with the nonsense and whatever it is. But it’s true that when we told them that, they went away, they pissed me out, but they left.

F19: I yell: ‘Hey, don’t touch me anymore because I don’t want you touching me’ . . . ‘Hey, look, get away from me . . .’. (The same was mentioned by two other girls.)

Our informants also offer various suggestions for safety improvement and risk prevention in urban spaces, such as the improvement of lighting in dark areas, surveillance and the use of technology. These suggestions coincide with suggestions by authors who have studied the need to incorporate a gender perspective in urban planning and the politics of urban maps that take into account the safety of women in the daily life of citizens (Kolektiboa, 2010; Savoldi, 2016).

F3: In one town, the mayor has paid for a small button for all women of a certain age.

F4: It would be a nice thing if they all, or in certain dark and empty streets if they added a help post.

F5: But there are many places, in my neighbourhood there are many streets like this (dark). The cheapest thing is to [instal] streetlights.