The project was divided into three main phases.
During the first phase the team collected secondary data with the aim of comparing existing crime and victimization surveys and official statistics on crime in the five countries involved in the project. The statistical treatment of the information gathered permitted to calculate the “dark figure” of crime (i.e. the amount of crime that exists in the general population but is not reported to or recorded by police) as well as to turn to a series of regression models that enabled us to test a range of demographic and socio-economic variables in terms of their association with different aspects of perceived insecurity. It was found that the factors that impact on an individual’s feelings of insecurity fall into three distinct categories: victimization, individual characteristics (sex, age, health and economic status) and neighbourhood characteristics.
During the second phase of the project a Delphi method was implemented in order to inform the design of a new thematic questionnaire (i.e. the MARGIN questionnaire) that was used to carry out a large-scale survey in Italy among a stratified sample of around 15,428 respondents (CATI system). Consistent with previous research, the results emerging from the analysis of the MARGIN survey revealed that sex and age were shown to be strong predictors of feelings of insecurity. At the same time, the survey revealed the incidence of health and financial precariousness and self-perceived stigmatization on people’s perception of insecurity. In particular, our findings support the idea that people’s concerns about the deterioration of their health and/or economic situation coupled with the perception of being looked out upon by others due to religious beliefs, sexual orientation or ethnic background may, in turn, increase people’s feeling of insecurity.
During the third phase covered the partnership carried out the anthropological fieldwork in five urban contexts in the EU (Barcelona, Budapest, London, Milan and Paris). The following data collection technique will be performed over the coming months in each urban scenario: in-depth interviews (N = 50), focus groups (N = 10) and participant observations (over 6 months). The research material produced during the fieldwork highlights the incompleteness of a strictly criminological definition of urban insecurity. The relation between objective risks (deviant actions and incivility) and the subjective worries of the citizens has become very complex and controversial. The constant and noteworthy renewal of the socio-demographic composition of the neighbourhoods, the transformation of the economy and the local businesses, the conflicts among people who have different access to public spaces, are all intertwined. They generate a diffuse sensation of lack of control over one’s own daily life in the urban settings. The concept of urban safety is actually more complex than typically understood theoretically and politically. Not only does it strictly pertain to public order, law enforcement, crime control, but it also includes notions such as urban, physical and social quality, in other words, the wellbeing in the city and in social relations.
