Introduction

Community safety policy is one of a number of initiatives governments have developed to address crime and related problems of disorder and insecurity. Community safety policy has grown slowly in importance and significance since the 1980s and now stands as the essential core of a collection of strategies (Tilley, 1994; Crawford, 1997; Gilling, 1997; Hughes, 1997; Stenson, 1998). Various critiques of community safety approaches have developed within criminology (Crawford, 1997; Hughes, 1998; Stenson, 1998; Garland, 2000; Coleman et al, 2002). Little attention has been paid, however, to the implications that community safety approaches may have for women in communities – as opposed to men or children.

This chapter explores the implications that community safety policies have for young women. It does not aim to offer a broad analysis of all the gender implications of the shift to community safety approaches. It is based on one research study of young women who live in a particularly deprived area, where they perceive the risks to their safety and their well-being to be high. The chapter focuses on data that indicate the strategies adopted by some of them.

Background and methodology

The evidence in this chapter is not drawn from direct research into criminology or fear of crime. Rather it emerged in a project that studied teenage pregnancy funded by the Department of Health (Bell et al, 2004). The study was qualitative and sought to understand more about the factors that influence young women who become pregnant in the UK. The research project was based in three separate sites throughout the UK, but the data in this chapter are all drawn from one site, a seaside town in the South East of England that had higher than average rates of teenage pregnancy.

The argument developed here is that these data offer insights that can be applied to understanding some of the barriers to the development of effective community safety strategies. There are methodological difficulties that must be acknowledged. The research was a small-scale study and we must be cautious of drawing generalisations from it. The data are reported by and derived from individuals who discuss the actions and motivations of others.