Topophobia Wanita dan Hubungannya dengan Kejadian Jenayah di Pantai Dalam, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

Women’s Topophobia and Its Relation to Crime Incidences in Pantai Dalam, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

Abstract

Women’s vulnerability is related to the perception of fear of place or topophobia. Crime is the main reason that contributes to women’s fear. Avoidance of topophobia space is seen as a form of social control to avoid women from being exposed to crimes. This study was conducted to determine the relationship between location, time and type of space of women’s topophobia with crime locations. A total of 391 women who lived in the study area were chosen as respondents. Data of crime locations were obtained from the Royal Malaysian Police (PDRM), while data on topophobia locations were obtained through a field survey using questionnaires, and from points marked by the respondents on the Pantai Dalam base map. The topophobia location data was analyzed using Geographical Information System (GIS) while the nature of topophobia space data was analyzed by descriptive statistics (frequencies, percentages, and means) and inferential statistics (t test, one-way Anova test, chisquare test and Pearson correlation test). The results show that location of women’s fear overlaps with crime locations, especially in hot spot area. However, time and type of space of women’s fear are not consistent with the crime cases. Women’s topophobia is higher at night compared with the high number of crime cases recorded in the daytime. In addition, most respondents thought that house is the safest place. Instead, crime records of Pantai Dalam indicate that the house is the most vulnerable. This inconsistency causes women to be unable avoid crimes because their effort to cope with topophobia is not in tandem with the pattern of time and space of high crime risk. Therefore, cooperation between authorities in dealing with this inconsistency could reduce women’s fear of being in the urban space, * please refer hardcopy JURNAL PERSPEKTIF jil. 5 bil. 2, November 2013