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Equality between men and women in terms of travelling in the city is far from being a reality. One aspect of this imbalance is linked to feeling unsafe, which affects women in particular. This article analyses the diversity as well as the scope of the feeling of being unsafe as experienced by women, in their ways of travelling in the city. This problem calls for a reflection on the interiorisation of the social differentiation between the sexes and the way in which it affects the relationship with one’s surroundings, in particular in a context of anonymity specific to an urban environment. The study presented in this article has an exploratory character, and is based on semi-structured interviews conducted with ten women who live in Brussels.

The study of the repression of resistance to the police in Brussels during the period between 1945 and 1975 invalidates the hypothesis of a phenomenon of rebellion among young people. The analysis of legal cases suggests that this resistance is the result of police interference in private conflicts. Men in their thirties who are most often from a disadvantaged background, frequent the public and semi-public spaces (street and pubs) of the urbanised municipalities of Brussels during their free time. Their involvement in violent interactions with their friends or wives – an assertion of their male identity or a release of physical energy – displeases authority figures, who convey middle-class standards of behaviour and intervene in an attempt to re-establish order. People with different ways of behaving clash in public as they try to impose their way of being. Police activity contributes to the criminalisation of working-class forms of social life and leisure.

Whilst security issues have once again invaded the political and media agenda these past months, with Brussels being described as a dangerous city, we are forced to recognise that very little attention has been given to the tools which allow a rational evaluation of the situation experienced by the inhabitants of Brussels. The present article consists in a partial analysis of one of these tools, namely the latest Security monitor, published in 2008. Which offences were reported most by the in-habitants of Brussels who were interviewed? What percentage of the population is affected? Do the inhabitants of Brussels feel insecure? These are some of the questions which we shall try to answer. But our answers are just a beginning, on the one hand because questions regarding insecurity and the feeling of insecurity require the utmost caution and, on the other, because the Security monitor has limitations, such as not being able to provide a precise description of the situation in Brussels in terms of insecurity. One therefore wonders why there does not appear to be a pertinent scale of analysis for Brussels as regards security issues.

The laws of 1999 and 2004 concerning the implementation of municipal administrative sanctions (in short GAS legislation) gave local authorities new legal instruments to act more vigourously against phenomena of nuisance. Local authorities can now impose an administrative fine of up to 250 euros for behaviour which is contrary to public order (cleanliness, safety and quiet enjoyment) or which causes “public nuisance”. This publication purports to assess how the 19 municipalities of Brussels Capital Region formulate and apply this local “nuisance law”. Many differences emerge in terms of the content, the procedure and the modalities of municipal administrative sanctions (mediation, taking the minutes, amounts) and in terms of the choice between fines or police punishments. Even though some de facto harmonisation has taken place among Brussels police and security matters and the Region intervenes to make adjustments where necessary, the Brussels Region needs more institutionally-based guidance.