Planning strategies to reduce fear of crime and increase privacy protection in evacuation shelters after the Great East Japan Earthquake.

2015 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 24560765
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Section: 一般
• Research Field: Town planning/Architectural planning
• Research Institution: Nihon Fukushi University
• Principal Investigator: TANAKA Yasushi 日本福祉大学, 健康科学部, 教授 (00387747)
• Co-Investigator(Kenkyū-buntansha): HINO Kimihiro 東京大学, 工学(系)研究科(研究員), 准教授 (30391600)
• Project Period (FY): 2012-04-01 – 2016-03-31
• Keywords: 東日本大震災 / 避難所 / 防犯 / プライバシー / 犯罪不安 / 防犯環境設計

Outline of Final Research Achievements

After the Great East Japan Earthquake in March 2011, many evacuees had to stay in evacuation shelters such as school gymnasiums for months. Many of the people in these shelters, a topic to which researchers have seemingly been indifferent.With the goal of developing planning strategies to reduce fear of crime and decrease privacy invasion in evacuation shelters, we conducted an internet questionnaire on 300 evacuees in Miyagi Prefecture who had stayed at such shelters for at least one day. We found that the countermeasures implemented to reduce fear of crime and privacy protection were insufficient and did not meet the requests of evacuees, especially females. First, respondents felt that places to secure valuables and partitions for privacy were needed. Second, an association was observed between fear of crime and actually witnessing and/or hearing about crimes. Based on these results, we provide recommendations to reduce fear of crime and increase privacy protection.

Free Research Field

人間工学