In recent years, both in Belgium and Brazil, different strategies and interventions, policies and laws, have been adopted by public authorities and citizens for securing private and public spaces in order to cope with crime and the sense of insecurity.The control of accesses through spatial segregation (e.g. gated communities), the installation of cameras, closed-circuit television systems and other devices of crime prevention via environmental design, ad hoc policies and the claim of the “state of emergency” are just some examples that are meant to supposedly increase the perception of safety or diminished social anxiety in relation to crime.

Confronting European and South-American case studies aims at discussing how the sense of ‘safety’ and ‘security’ is perceived and reproduced by different social groups, how it modifies urban spaces and how it is translated into policies and laws. Scholars from the Master of Society and Law, UNILASALLE Canoas, Brazil; form the Faculty of Law and Criminology and Cosmopolis – Center for Urban Research, Vrije Universiteit Brussel; from Latitude Platform for Urban Research and Design, Brussels will discuss ongoing researches related with the theme.