Fear of attack stalks big city

By Jan Corbett

Most women are too afraid to walk alone in their neighbourhoods at night, and feel some degree of threat in their everyday lives.

Aucklanders of both sexes are more concerned about being out after dark than people in the rest of the country. They are also more than twice as likely to feel the daily threat of violence.

Mayor Christine Fletcher said the message she was getting from Aucklanders was clear - the Government should not consider more tax cuts until social issues such as law and order were solved.

The degree to which New Zealanders in general and Aucklanders in particular live in daily fear is revealed in a Herald-DigiPoll survey of people's perceptions of violence in this country.

Asked if they felt comfortable walking alone in their neighbourhood at night, 57.9 per cent of the women said they never would, compared with 11.6 per cent of men.

Conversely, only 12.1 per cent of women said they always felt safe alone on their streets at night, compared with 49.4 per cent of men.

Anita Treefoot, the Auckland University Students Association women's rights officer, said women's fear of walking alone at night was out of proportion to the actual danger. "It's not just the danger that's debilitating, but the fear."

But she was not advocating that women take the risk.

"The answer is working towards a society where we don't have rape and violence against women. There's a pervasive acceptance of it in our society."

In general, only 16.9 per cent of women in our poll felt completely safe from everyday threats of violence, while 22.7 per cent of men said they did.

Michele Clayton, manager of Auckland central Victim Support, said that it might be unfair that women had to be so cautious, but it was a fact of life.

"Many women have to get someone to pick them up after work at night. It's a hassle, but it's worth it. Why go looking for trouble?"

In total, 43 per cent of Aucklanders said they never walked around their neighbourhood at night because they did not feel safe, compared with 34.7 per cent in the rest of the country.

And only 12.5 per cent of Aucklanders always felt safe from the threat of violence in everyday life, compared with 22.4 per cent of other New Zealanders.

Michele Clayton said recurrent incidents of violence in the city had given Aucklanders a higher awareness of the risks, making them more cautious.

Mrs Fletcher said she did not know an Aucklander who had not had a brush with crime. It was a huge issue that Auckland had not got on top of.

"That's why I've picked crime and safety as the chief beneficiary of the mayoral fund."

On Tuesday she announced that $40,000 from her mayoral salary would go to establishing a trust to combat youth crime.

Fight against violence: StoryLinks