Jelle Brands

Fear of Crime and Affective Ambiguities in the Night-time Economy

This article analyses fear of crime in the night-time economy as an event that emerges from, and unfolds as part of, the on-going encounters with human and non-human elements in particular places. A conceptual approach to understanding fear of crime is elaborated that highlights the role of ambiguity, meaning that a particular element does not have stable, well-determined effects on fear of crime, and the importance of thinking of fear as the folding of immediate futures and the past into the experienced present. Drawing on empirical research with university students in Utrecht, the Netherlands, the article explores how lighting, policing and the presence of ‘undesired others’ affect fear. Multiple forms of ambiguity are shown to exist, suggesting that interventions in the built environment and zero-tolerance policing tactics are unlikely to reduce fear of crime in the night-time economy as much as past research, influential policy and media discourses have suggested.

What are you looking at? Visitors’ perspectives on CCTV in the night-time economy:

In urban policy discourses across Western Europe, video surveillance is often considered an important tool to increase the safety of consumers in city-centre areas in general, and in nightlife districts in particular. However, the question of whether closed-circuit television (CCTV) actually promotes experiences of safety is neither straightforward nor resolved. Although this topic has received substantial attention in the academic literature, relatively little research has been conducted on how users of public spaces perceive CCTV whilst in the midst of situations. By directly confronting study participants in the presence of CCTV cameras, we explore nightlife district visitors’ perceptions and understandings of CCTV in situ, in relation to safety when out at night in Utrecht and Rotterdam, the Netherlands. Potential differences regarding gender and ethnicity are also considered. We found, first, that our study participants’ awareness of CCTV during the practice of ‘going out’ was a continuum rather than a dichotomy (aware or unaware) and that fuller awareness of CCTV is related to greater personal safety. Second, we observed a large gap between the policy discourses surrounding CCTV and the understanding of nightlife district visitors regarding how CCTV works. It is suggested that one way of aligning visitors’ understanding and policy discourses is to shift the latter from a focus on ensuring safety towards offering assistance. For the delivery of such assistance in practice, CCTV needs to be integrated further with other forms of policing and surveillance, especially those forms that are compatible with a spatiotemporal logic of embodiment and situatedness.