The perception, impact and handling of feelings of insecurity

Outbreaks of feelings of insecurity may result in citizens openly protesting that they feel unsafe — for example, through public demonstrations, public meetings or on social media. Public authorities might assume the problem facing citizens is one of actual crime victimisation. However, factors influencing perceptions of insecurity may have little or nothing to do with the experience of crime victimisation. Policymakers and practitioners need to better understand and address factors impacting citizens' feelings of insecurity. Interventions should be based on a systematic understanding of insecurity causal factors. An ill-considered response (for example, deploying more uniformed officers to the area) that is insensitive to the problem context, has the potential to not only fail to solve the problem, but may even make it worse. To support practitioners and security policymakers in better understanding and addressing citizens’ feelings of insecurity, the Cutting Crime Impact (CCI) project developed the CCI Feelings of Unsafety Lifecycle model as a conceptual framework.
CCI also supported a number of law enforcement agencies to better understand and address citizens’ feelings of insecurity. This led to the development of Tools tailored to their context to help end-users identify the responses required, and support the process of planning and taking action.