Criminal Spots on the Way Home from School A Case Study of Middle Schools in the Gangseo District

The purpose of this paper was to determine criminal spots on the way home from school for middle-school students. The Gangseo district, where most school violence occurs in Seoul, was investigated. Through a cognitive map analysis, the findings of this paper are as follows: first, the frequency of where fear of crime was felt was greater than that of actual crime, and the fear of crime did not closely reflect crime occurrence. Second, females had more fear of crime spots than males. Third, students feel fear mostly for reasons related to human factors rather than to space factors; among the human factors, 'peers' represented the most frequent reason. Fourth, mixed-use building regions were the most commonly cited criminal regions, as were school regions, despite the fact that they were small areas. Narrow paths and landmarks where people congregate were cited as criminal spots. Planned spaces for relaxation could also lead to fear related to the fact that these places are seen as common bully peer congregation spots. In addition, places associated with territoriality were commonly cited as criminal spots.