Abstract

Beyoglu is one of the two historical centers of Istanbul and also the center of entertainment as well as shopping. This place has lived several rises and falls through the history, experienced a long urban decay period between 1950-1980 and not much used by Istanbul residents in that period. Folowing the gentrification period which started in 1980, the area started flourishing again and several investments were made. While the gentrifiers have invested in the area, municipality has developed an urban landscape thus Beyoglu once again became a center of attraction. Housing population has returned to the area while entertainment and shopping functions have prevailed. On the other hand, neighobourhoods where low income people migrated from rural areas live, has not changed much and a social status difference occurred in between. Studies in that area show that the crime ratio which was used to be very high, is now getting lower; however, the fear of crime is still prevailing. The purpose of this article is to examine the fear of crime between residents and visitors of the area. For this purpose, face-to-face interviews on site with 189 residents and 411 visitors (total 600 people) were carried out in 2014. The interpretations show that fear of crime changes based on certain criteria in both neighbourhoods and for the elimination of this fear, studies in the area only is not sufficient and the area must be evaluated with its vicinity.