The urban fabric and fear of crime: the case of the compact city of Bilbao, Spain

This research examines the influence that a compact city’s urban fabric can have on fear of crime. To this end, the Spanish city of Bilbao, a compact city where the population’s fear of crime is higher than might be expected given low rates of victimization, was taken as a case study. Based on a comparative study of five of the city’s neighborhoods, the research used an inter-scalar analysis. Surveys were used to gather data about individuals’ fear of crime and places they avoided; and an observational and morphological analysis was carried out to analyze the urban characteristics of these places. The study produced two main results: first, Bilbao witnesses little fear of crime during the day and moderate fear at night, usually centered around the same spaces; second, the spaces avoided are usually related to singularities in the urban fabric, which include hermetic buildings, large green areas, urban borders, and interruptions. We concluded that some aspects of fear of crime at an environmental level are related to shortcomings in urban planning at the territorial and district levels. The study contributes to the field by providing a methodological tool addressing a gap in research connecting individual fear of crime and urban planning.