Lea Page’s wonderful article about walking alone in Europe was marred by the claim she makes about risk: “I knew that, statistically, women are safer out in the world than they are at home” (I walked 1,000 miles alone through Europe – and learned that fear is the price of freedom, 8 September).
This is dangerously misleading. While it is true that a woman is more likely to be attacked by someone intimately known to them than by a stranger, this is because intimate acquaintances have more access than strangers, and more opportunities to commit abuse.
Most women go to great lengths to limit the chances strange men have to gain access to them, whether this is choosing a different route to walk home, or avoiding places like public parks after dark. It is self-evident that a homeless woman sleeping on the streets is not statistically safer than a woman sleeping at home with her male partner.
Statistics tell you about trends in populations, not about individuals; a homeless woman with a very good hiding place to sleep at night is safer than a woman in a relationship with an abusive man, but equally, a woman walking at night through a park where women have been attacked before is not safer than a woman at home with her non-violent partner.
It is easy to misunderstand statistics and risk. More people are bitten by dogs than by wolves, but you are not safer with a wolf in your house.
Sarah Loewenbein
Ely, Cambridgeshire
