Elsevier

Preventive Medicine

Volume 47, Issue 3, September 2008, Pages 241-251
Preventive Medicine

Review
The built environment, neighborhood crime and constrained physical activity: An exploration of inconsistent findings

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ypmed.2008.03.017Get rights and content

Abstract

Objectives

Personal safety is commonly cited in qualitative research as a barrier to local walking, yet the relationship between safety and constrained physical activity has received mixed support in quantitative studies. This paper reviews the quantitative evidence to date, seeking to explain the inconsistencies, and offers recommendations for future research.

Methods

A social–ecological framework was adopted to explore the evidence linking crime-related safety, and factors that influence real and perceived safety, with constrained physical activity.

Results

Perceived safety tends to affect the physical activity of groups already known to exhibit greater anxiety about crime; and some elements of the built environment that influence safety appear to constrain physical activity. However the evidence is somewhat inconsistent, and this may be partly attributed to measurement limitations. Many studies employ generic safety measures that make implicit references to crime or use composite variables that lack specificity. Physical activity outcomes also require consideration, as only activities occurring locally outdoors are likely to be affected by neighborhood crime.

Conclusions

Further research is required to tease out associations between real and perceived crime-related safety and physical activity, ideally employing behaviour and crime-specific measures, and addressing the moderating role of the social and built environments.

Introduction

While the benefits of physical activity (PA) are well known, there is evidence that activity levels remain inadequate (Centre for Disease Control and Prevention, 2001), or are even decreasing in some countries (Armstrong et al., 2000). Globally an estimated 1.9 million deaths are attributed to physical inactivity (World Health Organization, 2002). Consequently, interventions that increase PA levels could produce considerable public health improvements, and neighborhood characteristics that correlate with improved health have become a public health research priority (Owen et al., 2004).

Walking is the most common form of PA (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 1996), and is usually performed in neighborhood streets and public open spaces (Giles-Corti and Donovan, 2002a). While some neighborhood characteristics have been consistently associated with higher levels of walking (Humpel et al., 2004, McCormack et al., 2004, Owen et al., 2004); other features have received mixed support in the literature to date. Real or perceived safety from crime is one such characteristic. Qualitative research has repeatedly cited perceptions of crime and safety as a barrier to achieving adequate levels of PA (Miles and Panton, 2006, Eyler et al., 1998, Corti et al., 1996), however the association finds infrequent support in the quantitative literature.

Research investigating the connection between safety and PA typically comprises numerous, diverse aspects of safety (e.g., dogs, traffic, infrastructure condition). This paper has a narrower focus; specifically addressing crime-related safety, and other neighborhood characteristics known to influence real or perceived safety from crime. Perceptions of safety can encompass judgments about crime (i.e., people's estimations of crime and the likelihood that a criminal event will occur), or emotional reactions to crime (i.e., fear of crime) (Ferraro and LaGrange, 1987). Ferraro (1995, p.8) defines fear of crime as “an emotional reaction of dread or anxiety to crime or symbols that a person associates with crime”. To alleviate their fears, people may alter their behavior according to two patterns: (1) constrained behavior, where exposure to potentially dangerous situations is minimised by avoiding certain places and changing behavior; and (2) protective behavior, where security measures are upgraded (Skogan and Maxfield, 1981). Both these responses have implications. It is plausible that people who are fearful about crime may constrain their PA, particularly if this involves local walking (Ross, 1993). Alternatively, while increased security precautions may alleviate the resident's own fears, alterations to the physical environment can introduce visual cues that may intensify concerns about neighborhood crime in other people.

Public health research is increasingly adopting social–ecological models to integrate the numerous, multi-level correlates influencing health-related outcomes (Stokols, 1992). The approach conceives that environments and settings either promote or discourage health-promoting behaviors (Sallis et al., 1998). Accordingly, this paper adopts a social–ecological framework to consider the multiple levels of influence that affect neighborhood safety and its relationship with PA. The review: (1) summarizes the individual, social and built environment characteristics that influence whether people feel safe; and (2) examines the association between real and perceived crime-related safety, including factors known to influence crime-related safety, and their association with PA. The theorized relationships are depicted in Fig. 1.

Section snippets

Individual characteristics

It is well documented that certain socio-demographic groups tend to exhibit greater fear of crime (see Hale, 1996). Women and elderly people tend to feel more physically vulnerable, hence their greater concerns for personal safety. Ethnic minorities and lower socio-economic groups are said to be ecologically vulnerable (Covington and Taylor, 1991), because they have fewer financial resources to protect themselves or their homes against crime, and often live in neighborhoods with concentrated

Methods

Electronic databases, including PsycINFO, Medline, Web of Science, Science Direct, ProQuest Social Science Journals and Pubmed were searched using combinations of the key words: neighborhood, walking, PA, exercise, crime, safety and fear. Only peer reviewed, English language, quantitative papers, published before July 2007 that addressed some form of crime-related safety and a PA outcome in adult populations were reviewed.

Results: the relationship between safety and PA

Forty-one papers met the search criteria. Table 1 summarizes the results, including crime-related safety measures, or neighborhood characteristics that influence crime-related safety; and any significant associations with PA. Some studies do not explicitly mention crime due to a reliance on global measures of safety, which do not openly state the source of insecurity. Nonetheless, global measures of safety have generally been adopted to gauge perceptions of crime-related safety, and are

Discussion

Studies exploring neighborhood safety and PA have identified somewhat mixed results. The research has a number of limitations associated with the measurement of crime-related safety. Many studies rely on “global” measures of safety, which do not explicitly mention the source of insecurity, and may be interpreted in various ways by respondents (Ball et al., 2007, Booth et al., 2000, Carnegie et al., 2002, Foster et al., 2004, Giles-Corti and Donovan, 2002b, Hoehner et al., 2005, Humpel et al.,

Conclusion

To date there is insufficient evidence to conclude that crime-related safety influences PA. Nonetheless, the results presented suggest that, particularly for women and older adults, crime-related safety may constrain PA.

This review highlights some limitations and inconsistencies with the research to date. In particular, the conceptualization and measurement of safety requires attention. Much of the research relies on inadequate measures of crime, which do not make explicit the source of

Acknowledgments

This research was funded by an Australian Research Council Grant (#LP0455453). The first author is supported by an Australian Research Council Postgraduate Award (Industry), with the support of the Department for Planning and Infrastructure (DPI) as Industry Partner. The second author is supported by a NHMRC Research Fellowship (#503712). There are no potential conflicts of interest known to any of the contributing authors.

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