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by Elsie Nisonen
METRAC, Toronto, Ontario, Canada

CPSR News Volume 12, Number 3: Summer 1994

"Reaction and interest in the Campus Safety Audit guide and video is very' positive. Queen's University is using them extensively. The video was shown in Residences during Orientation and staff and faculty have been using both guide and video as part of departmental meetings, in classes, and individually. An invaluable education!

Kathy Beers, Office of the Vice-Principle of Operations, Queen's University.

Violence is a reality in women's lives. In Canada, 39% of adult women are sexually assaulted at some point in their lifetime, either by a stranger or by someone known [1]. Both the reality and the fear of violence have kept women from participating fully in community life. 56% of Canadian women are afraid to walk in their own neighbourhood after dark. Only 18% of men feel this way [2].

Urban design and planning do not cause violence against women, but they do create an environment that otters greater or lesser opportunities for assault. Making public spaces safer is one way to reduce the opportunity for sexual and other assaults. METRAC has designed a way of using women's experience to assess personal safety and security concerns in specific urban areas through a Women's Safety Audit.

METRAC invented and pioneered the personal safety audit process in Canada, and has used the Women's Safety Audit method successfully with the Toronto Transit Commission (TTC), with city planners to audit parks and neighbourhoods, and with municipalities in towns and cities throughout Canada. The method has been adapted for planners and architects to audit blueprints during the pre-building stage of development. Students, faculty and staff on college and university campuses have used audits extensively to assess personal safety problems and features of campus facilities.

The Women's Safety Audit is a method of evaluating a physical environment in teens of women's personal safety concerns. The audit process involves a group of women looking at different spaces, discussing, and recording their experience and impressions of an area, usually after dark. General impressions of lighting, sightlines, potential assault locations, visual isolation, sound isolation, potential escape routes, nearby land uses, signage, and movement predictors are among the items evaluated.

The audit process has become a useful community development tool. The users of the space are crucial to the audit process, especially people who are most vulnerable to attack or harassment: women, persons with disabilities, ethno-racial minorities, children, etc. It is those who are most vulnerable who are the experts, and women are the largest vulnerable group. That's why the focus of the safety audit is women's safety, but an audit can also address the personal safety concerns of other groups. A place where women feel safe is a safer place for children, for people who are mentally challenged. and for older people. If places are safer for women, they are safer for everyone.

RESOURCES

• METRAC Women's Safety Audit Guide
• METRAC Women's Campus Safety Audit Guide
• Discussion Paper: Developing A Sate Urban Environment for Women
• Moving Forward: Making Transit Safer for Women
• Women's Campus Safety Resource Package (includes publications and a 27-minute video, Safer for Women ... Safer for Everyone)

Metro Action Committee on Public Violence against Women and Children (METRAC), 158 Spadina Road, Toronto Ontario MSR 2T8 Canada, 416-392-3135 (voice), 416-392-3136 (fax)

NOTES:

1. Violence Against Women Survey, Canadian Centre for Justice Statistics, Ottawa, 1993.

2. Canadian Urban Victimization Survey, Research and Statistics Group. Programming Branch- Solicitor-General of Canada. Bulletin 1: Victims of Crime, 1983, p. 6.

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