Dr Anna Barker tackles the safety of women and girls in parks for Government inquiry

Dr Barker has submitted written evidence to the Public Accounts Committee inquiry on Violence Against Women and Girls.

One in five women in their lifetime are estimated to be victims of sexual assault or attempted assault. One in twelve are reported to be victims of violence against women and girls (VAWG) annually. The true figure is likely to be much higher. 

The Public Accounts Committee have been scrutinising Government efforts to tackle VAWG, following a damning report from the National Audit Office on the same issue. The inquiry invited written evidence from experts in this field, and Associate Professor in Criminal Justice & Criminology Dr Anna Barker responded along with her co-authors, Dr Rebecca Brunk, Dr Melissa Barrientos, Professor George Holmes, Dr Vikki Houlden, Dr Maeve Murphy Quinlan, and Dr Fran Pontin.

Feeling unsafe in parks

Dr Anna Barker et al’s evidence focuses on concerns about safety and the threat of violence against women and girls (VAWG) in parks and green spaces. Many women and girls limit their use of parks, avoid them at certain times, or refrain from visiting alone. This negatively affects their social lives, health, wellbeing, and participation in outdoor activities. To address this, the authors propose the following recommendations:

Prioritise Safer Parks in National VAWG Strategies

• Embed park safety measures into future national strategies on tackling VAWG.
• Recognise public spaces, particularly parks, as key sites for intervention and funding.

Secure Long-Term Funding for Park Safety Initiatives

• Increase investment in local authorities to support the implementation of Safer Parks guidance.
• Establish a dedicated fund for councils to improve park safety through infrastructure, staffing, and community engagement, with a focus on design and management that ensures accessibility for women and girls.

Support Gender-Sensitive Design

• Support local authorities to incorporate gender-sensitive planning and inclusive design principles in all public space developments.
• Ensure that funding for parks and green spaces includes measures to improve safety for women and girls.
• Position safety as a core design and maintenance consideration in all urban green spaces, ensuring accessibility for women and girls.
• Encourage and strengthen the role of Designing Out Crime Officers (DOCOs) in working with park managers, community groups, landscape architects, and developers to create safer public environments.
• Engage local communities in the design and implementation of safety measures to ensure they meet the specific needs of women and girls.

 Expand and Institutionalise Bystander Intervention Training

• Support bystander intervention programmes for park staff, community safety professionals, and community groups.
• Integrate bystander training into professional development programmes for urban planners, police designing-out-crime-officers and public space managers.

Enhance Data Collection and Public Transparency

• Fund research into women’s experiences of safety in public spaces to inform evidence-based policy.
• Support the development of scalable open-data tools, such as the Safer Parks Open Data Dashboard, to identify and address safety concerns in public spaces, particularly parks.

Dr Barker says:

Safety isn’t just about responding to harm—it’s about creating public spaces that feel safe and welcoming. From research to real-world tools, this submission shows how design, data, and community action can make parks safer and more accessible for women and girls.

Dr Barker is a member of both the Centre for Criminal Justice Studies and Centre for Law and Social Justice. Anna is Deputy Lead (with Dr Rebecca Shaw) of the Feminist Research into Violence and Abuse (FRIVA) network at the University of Leeds. FRIVA has over 50 academic members who work to improve the lives of women and marginalised groups.