Social protests as signal events and the impact on young women in Hong Kong

Abstract

This research explores the impact of the social protests and their control in summer 2019 in Hong Kong. Existing criminological literature on the fear of crime tends to focus on the more vulnerable group such as the elderly, people with low income, and Western societies or neighbourhoods with a high crime rate. This study aims to fill the gap of research in Hong Kong by examining the perceptions and impact of the problem of crime and disorder in the relatively affluent neighbourhood. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with six young female professionals who live in Taikoo Shing. The Signal Crime Theory proposed by Martin Innes is adopted to analyse these young women’s perceptions and the impact of crime and the social protests. Results suggested that the signal crime perspective is highly relevant to our understanding of people’s fears and anxieties in Hong Kong. The results also show that there is a difference in the interpretations of fear depending on interviewees’ political stance and the different strategies they adopt to increase their sense of security.