Adolescents’ Perceived Safety and Security in Public Space—A Swedish Focus Group Study with a Gender Perspective

Abstract

Outdoor areas are important for adolescents, since they often lack access to other spaces. Focus group discussions were conducted with 15–16 year old girls and boys in Stockholm and Uppsala Counties, Sweden, to explore their ideas regarding threats they face when moving in public space, including traffic. The threats which emerged as most prominent were lone rapists—mainly threatening girls—or gangs of adolescent boys—threatening boys with violence and girls mainly with (sexual) harassment. Traffic, though sometimes admitted to be a major safety risk, was perceived as more manageable. Boys and girls suggest coping with social risks by behaving opposite to the gendered idea of a ‘victim’—boys by being non-aggressive, girls by acting confidently. Boys portray themselves as level-headed, skilled and making rational risk assessments. Girls sometimes described themselves as behaving in an unsafe way in traffic, but not in relation to social/sexual threats.