Crime, Women and Information and Communications Technologies: Everyday Management of Insecurity in Santiago and Buenos Aires

Abstract

In recent decades, crime has become a public concern anda daily issue in Latin America. While much research has focused onorganized crime and crime prevention, less attention has been givento how crime affects the everyday lives of young women in cities. Thisstudy, based on interviews with women in Santiago, Chile, and BuenosAires, Argentina, reveals that their primary concerns are street harassment and sexual crimes, which mainly impact their mobility in the city.Women avoid relying on mass media for information, instead turning to their mothers and grandmothers as primary sources of knowledge and fear. Chilean women express higher levels of concern, significantly restricting their activities, particularly leisure, compared toArgentine women. Despite these differences, women in both countrieshave adopted technologies for self-protection, although their lives remain deeply affected by the fear of crime.

Povzetek. V zadnjih desetletjih je kriminal postal pereč javni problem in vsakodnevna skrb v Latinski Ameriki. Čeprav je bilo veliko raziskav osredotočenih na organizirani kriminal in njegovo preprečevanje, je manj pozornosti namenjene vplivu kriminala na vsakodnevno življenje mladih žensk v urbanih okoljih. Ta raziskava, ki temelji na intervjujih z ženskami iz Santiaga v Čilu ter Buenos Airesa v Argentini, razkriva, da so njihove glavne skrbi nadlegovanje na ulici in spolni zločini, ki pomembno vplivajo na njihovo mobilnost v mestu. Namesto zanašanja na množične medije glede pridobivanja informacij se te ženske obračajo na svoje matere in babice kot primarne vire znanja ter previdnostnih ukrepov. Čilenske ženske v primerjavi z Argentinkami izkazujejo večjo stopnjo zaskrbljenosti, kar pomembno omejuje njihove aktivnosti, zlasti preživljanje prostega časa. Kljub razlikam v zaznavi so ženske v obeh državah sprejele različne tehnologije za samozaščito, vendar so njihova življenja še vedno globoko zaznamovana s strahom pred kriminalom.