Item Information
Title
Excerpts from "Perception of campus landscapes and fear of sexual assault : effects on female undergraduate travel behavior at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill," Karen Frances Falconer, thesis, 1989.
Description
Excerpts from "Perception of campus landscapes and fear of sexual assault : effects on female undergraduate travel behavior at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill," Karen Frances Falconer, thesis, 1989. Performed by Aubree Dixon, Lauren Ragsdale, Aubrey Snowden, and Katia Carmichael.
Creator
PlayMaker’s Repertory Company in collaboration with the University Archives at Louis Round Wilson Library
Source
North Carolina Collection (Wilson Library) -- Thesis Perception of campus landscapes and fear of sexual assault : effects on female undergraduate travel behavior at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill C378 UO2 1989 FALCONER, K.F.
https://catalog.lib.unc.edu/trln/UNCb2343741
https://catalog.lib.unc.edu/trln/UNCb2343741
Date
2021
Language
English
Identifier
Transcription
Actor 1 (Falconer): Aubree Dixon
Actor 2: Lauren Ragsdale
Actor 3: Aubrey Snowden
Actor 4: Katia Carmichael
ACTOR 1 (Falconer): Introduction (entire page):
PERCEPTION OF CAMPUS LANDSCAPES AND FEAR OF SEXUAL ASSAULT: EFFECTS ON FEMALE UNDERGRADUATE TRAVEL BEHAVIOR AT THE UNIVERSITY OF NORTH CAROLINA AT CHAPEL HILL
by Karen Frances Falconer
A Thesis submitted to the faculty of The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in the Department of Geography.
Chapel Hill 1989
ACTOR 1: Dear Student,
There is a growing body of evidence which suggests that many women in the
United States are restricted in their mobility by their fear of sexual assault. This questionnaire is designed to determine the degree to which undergraduate women at UNC are restricted by this fear while on campus, and whether fear of sexual assault is associated with specific places on campus. Your completion of this questionnaire will be greatly appreciated. This study is being conducted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Master of Arts degree in Geography. I plan to share the results of the project with UNC administrators who are responsible for campus safety.
ACTOR 1: The students were instructed to shade, on a map of campus (provided), those areas where they felt uncomfortable walking alone after dark. Of those shaded areas, each was asked to circle the one area which she found the most threatening. Then the student was directed to describe where the circled place is and why that place bothers her.
More than ninety different areas were identified by students as the place on campus they fear most. Some places are as small as a few square yards (between two buildings, for example) while others are long and narrow (paths), and others are large (all of south campus). Many of the identified places are paths or sidewalks; naturally, the women thought in terms of their journeys and routes.
actor 2: Conclusions of the thesis:
ACTOR 2: Proposition #1: Female undergraduates fear sexual assault and
associate the risk thereof with specific places on campus to such a degree and extent that it has an effect on their daily lives… The fear of sexual assault and the association of the risk of assault with certain places has an effect on the daily lives of the women of the University of North Carolina campus.
Large numbers of women indicated that they choose routes which are well lit and where there are likely to be other people, rarely walk alone after dark on campus, and usually carry an alarm or protective device.
ACTOR 3: Proposition #2: Some places have attributes which contribute to their fearfulness.
Among the most clear findings of this study is that, to a large degree, the fear of a place is the fear of its attributes. The vast majority of respondents to the survey were precise in their descriptions of why particular places were worrisome.
ACTOR 4: Proposition #3: These feared places are feared to a significant degree by an important percentage of the sample population. Proposition #4: Fear of places affects travel behavior in significant and measurable wavs.
Both the fear of sexual assault in general and the fear of specific places affect travel behavior. Certain areas may be avoided altogether where possible, or behavior while walking through them may be altered. Many women do not walk alone when they can find someone to accompany them, they choose routes based on certain safety criteria when they have no choice but to walk alone, and they carry devices designed to protect themselves or to sound alarms.
ACTOR 1: Proposition #5: There is a spatial pattern of feared places
on campus. The spatial pattern of feared places is to a large extent the spatial pattern of worrisome attributes, like hiding places, darkness, and desertedness.
ACTOR 1: Student Comments
The most outstanding sentiment expressed by these women was resentment; more than twenty of them said that they are angry that they feel unsafe, not just on the University of North Carolina campus but in general, and resent having to restrict themselves temporally and spatially. One woman was particularly emphatic because she knew a woman who had been raped and beaten by two men recently:
ACTOR 2 "...Instead of getting more counseling---[which] I believe the administration sees as a way of solving the problem---I would much rather see the money, time, and effort be put into campus monitors patrolling campus, more lights, more alarms, more awareness...Let's stop the problem before it happens. I don't want this to happen to anyone else, and it shouldn't have to. This should be TOP PRIORITY!!"
ACTOR 3: About half of the number of women who said they resent restricting themselves said that women must be careful, use common sense about where they go alone, etc.; in other words, that it is a woman's responsibility to restrict herself.
ACTOR 4: Several respondents felt that nothing could be done about sexual assaults. In contrast, other students requested more preventive programs and promotion of services both for victims and to prevent victimization.
ACTOR 2: "Something must be done!" was an often-expressed sentiment. Some students directed this call for action to the UNC administration, for others it was a general plea. This group of women were angry that they feel scared on the campus of a school that they pay to attend. They feel at the mercy of what some of them perceive as an administration more concerned with public relations than with their safety. There were three women who said that they thought the university was making a good effort to make the campus safe.
ACTOR 3: Several women described what a few labelled as a "bad attitude". In the words of one freshman, "...I know this is silly, but I try to rationalize to myself that I'd be able to outrun most guys...I should take more "preventive measures" in the future. Hopefully it won't take a bad experience to teach me that lesson." It appears that, on one hand, this woman believes that she should have the freedom to do as she pleases with regard to travel and activities on campus, but that on the other hand, she expects to be "taught the lesson" that her behavior is inappropriate.
ACTOR 4: About five students requested that the location and incidence of sexual assaults be publicized, so that women can avoid "dangerous" areas and know exactly what magnitude of danger exists. This comment is typical: "I don't appreciate campus and city police’s efforts to "hush up" the actual numbers of sexual assaults...". In contrast, one student commented that too much space had been given such incidents in the school newspaper.
ACTOR 1: Specific actions to be taken to decrease the danger/fear of certain places were recommended by more than twenty women. Chief among these was a request for more and brighter lighting. More patrols on campus were also suggested, and some students pointed out that foot patrols, as opposed to officers in cars, would both contribute to a sense of safety and enable those patrolling to cover the ground which students walk, rather than those places where cars are. Three women expressed displeasure with the campus police force.
ACTOR 2: This senior's statement shows her frustration: "I feel that if all places on campus were well-lit and policemen and transportation people spent more time patrolling than ticketing cars, half the rapes wouldn't happen."
ACTOR 3: It seems that one of the reasons that more women suggested increased lighting than any other change in the physical structure of the campus in order to help them feel more safe is because this alteration would be least detrimental to the appearance of the campus. Several women said that they were proud of the beauty of their surroundings, and that they would not want to see any bushes cut or trees removed, even in the Arboretum.
ACTOR 1: About five students commented that they feel safe on the
campus or that they don't worry about sexual assault.
ACTOR 4: Associated with the striking amount of anger and resentment concerning the fear of sexual assault and the perceived need for self-restricting behaviors was a surprising volume of anecdotes about individual behavior. Women wrote about trying to schedule all of the activities for which they have to be on campus into daytime, so that they will be able to avoid being outdoors on campus after dark. The sheer amount of time and emotional energy consumed by this is clearly important on an individual level, and may be at the aggregate level, as well.
ACTOR 2: Recommendations
ACTOR 2: It is clear that female undergraduate students at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill fear sexual assault and associate certain landscapes with the risk thereof. This fear has an impact on how they schedule their time, where they walk and when, what jobs they take, which friends they visit and which study sessions they miss---in short, it affects how they live their lives.
ACTOR 3: Altering landscapes to make them less fearful is not an answer to this problem, chiefly because the problem is largely limited to the hours of darkness. Several women wrote specifically that they enjoyed the scenery of the campus and did not wish to see any of it changed.
ACTOR 4: The best suggestions about how to deal with the fear of sexual assault came from the women who participated in this project. There were many worthwhile recommendations, but two were requested more often than the others: 1) more, brighter lighting everywhere; and 2) a reliable escort service that provides escorts until early morning and services areas off campus as _well as on campus. These changes would counteract two of the most important reasons why places are frightening: darkness and desertedness.
ACTOR 1: Concluding Statement
This case study of the impact of the fear of sexual assault on 282 undergraduate women at the University of North Carolina has shown the direct connection between landscape and fear. The fear of sexual assault is connected to certain places because of specific physical and non-physical characteristics of those places. An individual interprets information through a filter of attitudes and beliefs to form an image of landscape, and it is this image on which people base spatial decisions. Each person has a unique perceptual filter. For many women, this filter includes the fear of sexual assault.
Actor 2: Lauren Ragsdale
Actor 3: Aubrey Snowden
Actor 4: Katia Carmichael
ACTOR 1 (Falconer): Introduction (entire page):
PERCEPTION OF CAMPUS LANDSCAPES AND FEAR OF SEXUAL ASSAULT: EFFECTS ON FEMALE UNDERGRADUATE TRAVEL BEHAVIOR AT THE UNIVERSITY OF NORTH CAROLINA AT CHAPEL HILL
by Karen Frances Falconer
A Thesis submitted to the faculty of The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in the Department of Geography.
Chapel Hill 1989
ACTOR 1: Dear Student,
There is a growing body of evidence which suggests that many women in the
United States are restricted in their mobility by their fear of sexual assault. This questionnaire is designed to determine the degree to which undergraduate women at UNC are restricted by this fear while on campus, and whether fear of sexual assault is associated with specific places on campus. Your completion of this questionnaire will be greatly appreciated. This study is being conducted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Master of Arts degree in Geography. I plan to share the results of the project with UNC administrators who are responsible for campus safety.
ACTOR 1: The students were instructed to shade, on a map of campus (provided), those areas where they felt uncomfortable walking alone after dark. Of those shaded areas, each was asked to circle the one area which she found the most threatening. Then the student was directed to describe where the circled place is and why that place bothers her.
More than ninety different areas were identified by students as the place on campus they fear most. Some places are as small as a few square yards (between two buildings, for example) while others are long and narrow (paths), and others are large (all of south campus). Many of the identified places are paths or sidewalks; naturally, the women thought in terms of their journeys and routes.
actor 2: Conclusions of the thesis:
ACTOR 2: Proposition #1: Female undergraduates fear sexual assault and
associate the risk thereof with specific places on campus to such a degree and extent that it has an effect on their daily lives… The fear of sexual assault and the association of the risk of assault with certain places has an effect on the daily lives of the women of the University of North Carolina campus.
Large numbers of women indicated that they choose routes which are well lit and where there are likely to be other people, rarely walk alone after dark on campus, and usually carry an alarm or protective device.
ACTOR 3: Proposition #2: Some places have attributes which contribute to their fearfulness.
Among the most clear findings of this study is that, to a large degree, the fear of a place is the fear of its attributes. The vast majority of respondents to the survey were precise in their descriptions of why particular places were worrisome.
ACTOR 4: Proposition #3: These feared places are feared to a significant degree by an important percentage of the sample population. Proposition #4: Fear of places affects travel behavior in significant and measurable wavs.
Both the fear of sexual assault in general and the fear of specific places affect travel behavior. Certain areas may be avoided altogether where possible, or behavior while walking through them may be altered. Many women do not walk alone when they can find someone to accompany them, they choose routes based on certain safety criteria when they have no choice but to walk alone, and they carry devices designed to protect themselves or to sound alarms.
ACTOR 1: Proposition #5: There is a spatial pattern of feared places
on campus. The spatial pattern of feared places is to a large extent the spatial pattern of worrisome attributes, like hiding places, darkness, and desertedness.
ACTOR 1: Student Comments
The most outstanding sentiment expressed by these women was resentment; more than twenty of them said that they are angry that they feel unsafe, not just on the University of North Carolina campus but in general, and resent having to restrict themselves temporally and spatially. One woman was particularly emphatic because she knew a woman who had been raped and beaten by two men recently:
ACTOR 2 "...Instead of getting more counseling---[which] I believe the administration sees as a way of solving the problem---I would much rather see the money, time, and effort be put into campus monitors patrolling campus, more lights, more alarms, more awareness...Let's stop the problem before it happens. I don't want this to happen to anyone else, and it shouldn't have to. This should be TOP PRIORITY!!"
ACTOR 3: About half of the number of women who said they resent restricting themselves said that women must be careful, use common sense about where they go alone, etc.; in other words, that it is a woman's responsibility to restrict herself.
ACTOR 4: Several respondents felt that nothing could be done about sexual assaults. In contrast, other students requested more preventive programs and promotion of services both for victims and to prevent victimization.
ACTOR 2: "Something must be done!" was an often-expressed sentiment. Some students directed this call for action to the UNC administration, for others it was a general plea. This group of women were angry that they feel scared on the campus of a school that they pay to attend. They feel at the mercy of what some of them perceive as an administration more concerned with public relations than with their safety. There were three women who said that they thought the university was making a good effort to make the campus safe.
ACTOR 3: Several women described what a few labelled as a "bad attitude". In the words of one freshman, "...I know this is silly, but I try to rationalize to myself that I'd be able to outrun most guys...I should take more "preventive measures" in the future. Hopefully it won't take a bad experience to teach me that lesson." It appears that, on one hand, this woman believes that she should have the freedom to do as she pleases with regard to travel and activities on campus, but that on the other hand, she expects to be "taught the lesson" that her behavior is inappropriate.
ACTOR 4: About five students requested that the location and incidence of sexual assaults be publicized, so that women can avoid "dangerous" areas and know exactly what magnitude of danger exists. This comment is typical: "I don't appreciate campus and city police’s efforts to "hush up" the actual numbers of sexual assaults...". In contrast, one student commented that too much space had been given such incidents in the school newspaper.
ACTOR 1: Specific actions to be taken to decrease the danger/fear of certain places were recommended by more than twenty women. Chief among these was a request for more and brighter lighting. More patrols on campus were also suggested, and some students pointed out that foot patrols, as opposed to officers in cars, would both contribute to a sense of safety and enable those patrolling to cover the ground which students walk, rather than those places where cars are. Three women expressed displeasure with the campus police force.
ACTOR 2: This senior's statement shows her frustration: "I feel that if all places on campus were well-lit and policemen and transportation people spent more time patrolling than ticketing cars, half the rapes wouldn't happen."
ACTOR 3: It seems that one of the reasons that more women suggested increased lighting than any other change in the physical structure of the campus in order to help them feel more safe is because this alteration would be least detrimental to the appearance of the campus. Several women said that they were proud of the beauty of their surroundings, and that they would not want to see any bushes cut or trees removed, even in the Arboretum.
ACTOR 1: About five students commented that they feel safe on the
campus or that they don't worry about sexual assault.
ACTOR 4: Associated with the striking amount of anger and resentment concerning the fear of sexual assault and the perceived need for self-restricting behaviors was a surprising volume of anecdotes about individual behavior. Women wrote about trying to schedule all of the activities for which they have to be on campus into daytime, so that they will be able to avoid being outdoors on campus after dark. The sheer amount of time and emotional energy consumed by this is clearly important on an individual level, and may be at the aggregate level, as well.
ACTOR 2: Recommendations
ACTOR 2: It is clear that female undergraduate students at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill fear sexual assault and associate certain landscapes with the risk thereof. This fear has an impact on how they schedule their time, where they walk and when, what jobs they take, which friends they visit and which study sessions they miss---in short, it affects how they live their lives.
ACTOR 3: Altering landscapes to make them less fearful is not an answer to this problem, chiefly because the problem is largely limited to the hours of darkness. Several women wrote specifically that they enjoyed the scenery of the campus and did not wish to see any of it changed.
ACTOR 4: The best suggestions about how to deal with the fear of sexual assault came from the women who participated in this project. There were many worthwhile recommendations, but two were requested more often than the others: 1) more, brighter lighting everywhere; and 2) a reliable escort service that provides escorts until early morning and services areas off campus as _well as on campus. These changes would counteract two of the most important reasons why places are frightening: darkness and desertedness.
ACTOR 1: Concluding Statement
This case study of the impact of the fear of sexual assault on 282 undergraduate women at the University of North Carolina has shown the direct connection between landscape and fear. The fear of sexual assault is connected to certain places because of specific physical and non-physical characteristics of those places. An individual interprets information through a filter of attitudes and beliefs to form an image of landscape, and it is this image on which people base spatial decisions. Each person has a unique perceptual filter. For many women, this filter includes the fear of sexual assault.