Is Green Space in the Living Environment Associated with People's Feelings of Social Safety?

Jolanda Maas, Peter Spreeuwenberg, Marijke van Winsum-Westra, Robert A Verheij, Sjerp Vries and Peter P Groenewegen
Additional contact information
Marijke van Winsum-Westra: ALTERRA, Green World Research, PO Box 47, 6700 AA Wageningen, The Netherlands
Robert A Verheij: NIVEL, Netherlands Institute for Health Services Research, PO Box 1568, 3500 BN Utrecht, The Netherlands
Sjerp Vries: ALTERRA, Green World Research, PO Box 47, 6700 AA Wageningen, The Netherlands
Peter P Groenewegen: NIVEL, Netherlands Institute for Health Services Research, PO Box 1568, 3500 BN Utrecht, The Netherlands

Environment and Planning A, 2009, vol. 41, issue 7, 1763-1777

Abstract: The authors investigate whether the percentage of green space in people's living environment affects their feelings of social safety positively or negatively. More specifically they investigate the extent to which this relationship varies between urban and rural areas, between groups in the community that can be identified as more or less vulnerable, and the extent to which different types of green space exert different influences. The study includes 83 736 Dutch citizens who were interviewed about their feelings of social safety. The percentage of green space in the living environment of each respondent was calculated, and data analysed by use of a three-level latent variable model, controlled for individual and environmental background characteristics. The analyses suggest that more green space in people's living environment is associated with enhanced feelings of social safety—except in very strongly urban areas, where enclosed green spaces are associated with reduced feelings of social safety. Contrary to the common image of green space as a dangerous hiding place for criminal activity which causes feelings of insecurity, the results suggest that green space generally enhances feelings of social safety. The results also suggest, however, that green space in the most urban areas is a matter of concern with respect to social safety.

Date: 2009
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (4)

Downloads: (external link)
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1068/a4196 (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:sae:envira:v:41:y:2009:i:7:p:1763-1777

DOI: 10.1068/a4196

Access Statistics for this article

More articles in Environment and Planning A
Bibliographic data for series maintained by SAGE Publications ().