Travel: Personal Safety, Security & Risk Influences, Distortions and Variances

Personal safety and security issues, particularly when travelling, are routinely conflated with the fear and knowledge of negative events or unknown.

Visceral, topical, extraordinary and top-of-mind events, issues and possible negative outcomes permeate these thoughts across individuals and groups in differing ways.

Moreover, personal, dependent variable attenuate fear, which modifies 'risk'. Such as age, gender, religion, ethnicity, 'in/out group' belonging, education and wealth, just to name a few.

In other words, fear remains a dominant factor in all safety and security narratives, particular individual narratives associated with travel or mobility.

This in turn influences confidence, 'risk-taking', a sense of adventure and variance within a travel routine or journey plan. Knowledge plays a role, but not in conventional or traditional ways. Knowledge, wisdom, data and action all need to be considered and measured where possible.

In short, 'one-size-fits-all' fits no one when it comes to personal safety and security issues in travel.

Crime is neither universally relevant to all individuals, communities or locations.

As a result, specific knowledge, disclaimers and information associated with crime remains mandatory.

In particular, where crime is modified.

This routinely occurs across borders, timelines, locations, types of crime and political views. Terrorism is a good example, as it murder and crime per capita.

Because city density varies from location to location, which routinely undermines and confounds per 100,000 approximations of crime, including CBD's which ebb and flow with human mobility and density from hour to hour (well, at least it did before the pandemic). Defying neat, past data models such as 1:100,000 crime reporting. Not withstanding, human geography, built environment and surrounding criminogenic factors and influences also distort such numbers, considerably. As do 'protectors', preventions and 'guardian' factors from local to another.

The pandemic has distorted these legacy crime figures and forecasts too.

Hence, modification, revised calculations, calibration and context are necessitated.

In sum, personal safety and security can not be determined by information or communication alone. Fear, cognition, awareness, perception and numerous personal, dependent variables must be considered and supported. Context and relevance remain king in these matters.

Everything after this start point is null and void or irrelevant if not considered in full. No matter the convenience or 'scale' challenges. Which highlights the reality.

That is, safety and security, including when travelling remains an immensely personal concept and demand.

Generic approaches and attempts of 'one-size-fits-all' invites exclusion, serving no one, litigation and actually amplifies foreseeable risk, events and negative outcomes.

Because no one person was specifically serviced, just the 'group'. And the group is never homogeneous, nor is the local and threat static.

Tony Ridley, MSc CSyP MSyI M.ISRM

Security, Risk, Resilience, Safety & Management Sciences

Reference:

Beecroft, M., & Pangbourne, K. (2015). Personal security in travel by public transport: the role of traveller information and associated technologies. IET intelligent transport systems, 9(2), 167-174.