The Gendered Lens : A report on Women's Experiences with Video Surveillance and Urban Security in Toronto

Making sure people are safe in cities is an important issue. It is also very much a gendered one, as women tend to report higher levels of fear of crime than do men. One response to public fear of crime has been Closed Circuit Television (CCTV) cameras. but, it is not clear if this kind of surveillance decreases women’s fear of crime and increases their sense of urban security. Our project, funded by the  Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, set out to  document and explain the relationship between CCTV cameras and women’s  sense of urban security.