The Importance Of Fear In Towson Campus

Fear is a daily occurrence and it is a social issue that impacts us all. While walking around the Towson campus/ area I found three possible spaces or places that may trigger fear for a person at night. The first location I spotted on campus that can trigger fear is the intersection of Glen Towers and Union, which is located near Smith Hall and Glen Forest. It has sharp corners making it easy to bump into others, low lighting, accessible emergency poles, and many surrounding stairs. During the day, many students use the space to lie around on the hill by Smith Hall in order to do homework, study, spend time with friends, and take in the sun. This area might trigger fear because the limited lighting can create paranoia among students when

The garage has four levels and is spacious enough for one to move. It is an open space that is isolated from buildings on campus. Despite being close to the Center for Liberal Arts building it still feels isolated due to the surrounding trees and walk to get to and from the building. Faculty members and commuting students typically use this area to park their cars and have easy access to their classes. This location may trigger fear because the lights in the garage do not all work, so while one is walking through the garage lights flicker raising the level of anxiety a person may experience if they are walking alone. CLA also has one main entrance that is visibly noticeable and since it is four levels, it makes it hard for the person to escape. In order to reduce the fear I would fix all the lights in the garage to ensure a person can clearly see and add more sign around the garage to make clear where the exits

If one is visiting a neighborhood with a bad reputation that is high in crime and low socioeconomic status a person is more likely to experience fear if walking through the neighborhood or just driving past it. Fear is a social problem so it is not unusual to feel fear if he/she is an area that is strange to them. Media also impacts fear, they take crimes that are not common and misconstrue them to make them appear as if they are daily occurrences. Newspapers, TV stations, social media, and websites focus on stories that grab a reader’s attention, which tend to be stories of mass shootings, murders, rape, etc flooding people with images of crimes every day influencing how a person perceives the risk of crimes occurring to them.
In conclusion, I find the fear of stranger crime impacting my daily life in the social environment because I take extra precautions to prevent myself from falling a victim to crimes. The common occurrence of rape for college women has lead me to carry pepper spray, take a self defense class, and make sure to always walk in a group. If I go out at night I make sure to in a group of four or more and to have and bring a close male friend in case any problems