Security and territory: a complex relationship comprising fears old and new

Security is a particularly complex, and in many ways slippery issue; yet it is equally true that its opposite, insecurity, is also an extremely complex, multi-faceted question. As is often the case with the trickiest of social issues, the gap that separates scientific research from public opinion tends to widen rather than narrow, because the perception of the seriousness of crime is largely dependent, as highlighted earlier, by personal and emotional elements, as well how the various episodes are covered in the media. The attempt to shed light on the problems that derive from this situation and that fuel the demand for greater security led to the carrying out in March-April 2007 of a victimisation study, based on a questionnaire supplied using the CATI technique to a significant sample of the population resident in the Emilia-Romagna Italian region.