Fear of Crime among College Students: A Test of the Shadow of Sexual Assault Hypothesis

Women’s fear of rape and sexual assault has been both theoretically and empirically linked to their fear of other types of crimes, a phenomenon referred to as the shadow of sexual assault hypothesis in past research. This thesis has been supported across specific populations (i.e., the general population of women in the United States and college women in the United States), but the research examining the shadow of sexual assault hypothesis has suffered from methodological limitations. The current research corrected these limitations and performed a test of the shadow of sexual assault hypothesis among college and university students across temporal situations and victim-offender relationships. The findings indicate that women’s fear of rape and sexual assault does impact their fear of nonsexual crimes across temporal situations and victim-offender relationships.     

The Relation Between Crime News and Fear of Violence

In this article, we explore the relationship between the use of crime news and fear of violence through multivariate analyses. Our main objective is to examine whether exposure to crime news is related to avoidance behaviour and fear of crime when personal and vicarious victimization experiences, as well as a number of other relevant factors, are held constant. Using the 2003 sweep of the Finnish National Victimization Surveys, we focus on two types of crime news exposure: exposure to crime‐related tabloid headlines, and the scope of exposure to different sources of crime news. Our main finding is that reading tabloid front pages is associated with both avoidance behaviour and with higher levels of worry about becoming a victim of violence. We also found that people who expose themselves to many sources of crime news are more likely to fear violence. As an interesting by‐product of our analyses, we observed that being unemployed was quite strongly associated with fear of violence.     

Racial Composition of Television Offenders and Viewers' Fear of Crime

Scholars, politicians,criminal justice professionals and members ofthe general public frequently link the media tothe United States' crime problem. Although manyscholars have noted the televised constructionof young black males as the stereotypicalcriminal, no study has ever measured how therace-specific content of media messages may berelated to viewers' perceptions and fearsrelating to crime. This article breaks withpast research that analyzes fear of crime byprogram genre, and instead explores the impactof the racial composition of televisionoffenders on viewers' fear of crime. The datainclude a content analysis of twenty-sixcrime-related programs and a telephone surveyof 1492 adults to explore the relationshipbetween television viewing and fear of crime. For African Americans there is a correlationbetween time spent viewing television and fearof crime. For Whites, the relative frequencyof African-American offenders in the televisionprograms is more important for predicting fearof crime than the amount of television theywatch.     

Fear of Gang Crime: A Look at Three Theoretical Models

Gang crime and resulting public fear became a major policy focus during the 1990s, yet few studies specifically focus on fear of gang crime. Guided by social disorganization theory, we test three theoretical models about the individual thought processes leading to fear of gang crime. Using structural equation models, we find that each of these three theories—diversity, disorder, and community concern—is an important predictor of gang-related fear. In addition, we find that the indirect relationships between demographic characteristics, theoretical variables, and fear depend upon which model is tested.     

Victimization Rates, Exposure to Risk, and Fear of Crime

Studies of fear of crime repeatedly point to an apparent paradox: fear of crime and risk of victimization are related inversely among demographic groups (i.e., age, race, and sex groups). However, data from surveys of Chicago residents show that fear of crime is related positively to victimization rates once they are adjusted for exposure to risk. When demographic variables are included with the adjusted rates as predictors of fear of crime, age and sex effects persist. Even so the present findings indicate that fear of crime should not be interpreted as an irrational or unjustified response and that fear can be reduced by lowering victimization rates.     

Fear of Crime among Gang and Non-Gang Offenders: Comparing the Effects of Perpetration,Victimization, and Neighborhood Factors

This is the first study to examine adult offenders’ fear of property, personal, and gang crime. We examine five research questions among 2,414 jail inmates, focusing on how afraid offenders are of crime. We compare current, ex-gang, and non-gang members. We ask if more experience with crime perpetration and victimization and more perceptions of social disorganization increase offenders’ fear of crime. Finally, we ask if the importance of these factors in predicting fear varies by gang status. Results show that offenders, generally, were not very afraid of crime. Although ex-gang and current gang members believed they were more likely to experience property, personal, and gang crime, they reported less fear than non-gang members. Crime perpetration did not influence offenders’ fear, but less experience with personal crime victimization predicted fear of personal and gang crime among non-gang members. The results also indicate that perceptions of social disorganization better explain fear among non-gang members than ex-gang and current gang members.     

Fear of crime among citizens of Turkey

Most fear of crime research has occurred in Western countries. The following analysis presents an integrated model of fear of crime for a randomly selected sample of 6,713 individuals from urban and rural parts of Turkey. Consistent with previous research, the victimization model, disorder model, and community concern/social control model predicted fear of crime among Turkish citizens. The integrated model of fear of crime, however, functioned differently in the Turkish context based on gender and residential locale. Increased age lowered the level of fear for women but not for men, and the positive impact of previous victimization on fear of crime was significantly more pronounced among females. Increased education reduced fear for urban dwellers, but not for rural residents. While age did not have a significant impact on fear for rural residents, in contrast to the vulnerability hypothesis, it reduced the level of fear for urban residents.     

Multi-level Analysis of Disorder Policing and Fear of Crime in South Korea

Asian Journal of Criminology - Numerous studies have analyzed the relationship between disorder and fear of crime, but few have focused on the impact of policing against disorder on fear of crime....     

Elections and the Fear of Crime: the Case of France and Italy

Recent elections in France (2002 and 2007) and Italy (2008) were won on a law and order platform. This article asks why, and compares the strategies used by the new governments to implement their election promises. The goals are the same: to increase security and lower fear of crime levels, but there are noticeable differences in the perception of the underlying causes, such as the role played by illegal immigration. The solutions proposed also vary. France relies on increased police efficiency and more coercive legislation, whereas Italy favours almost exclusively emergency legislation including the deployment of 3500 soldiers. Prevention is not a priority in either country.     

Coping With Crime in a Developing Country: The Fear of Crime in Port Moresby,Papau New Guinea

The purpose of this article is to describe the various responses to the crime problem in Port Moresby and to compare the fear of crime among three groups living in Port Moresby (college staff, college students, and senior level managers).

Urban crime has become a major problem and a public issue in Port Moresby and the various responses to it are similar to those found in the U.S.: individual strategies for maintaining security, ad hoc collective measures among neighbors, pressure group demands, and political proposals.

Three groups were compared on their levels of fear of four types of crime and the security precautions they took in order to protect themselves. It was found that the group with the most economic resources and greatest community cohesiveness had the lowest level of fear of crime. The group with the most fear tended to rely more on neighbors for assistance and took greater security precautions than the “low-fear” group. Also, the findings suggest that expatriates may have a lower level of fear than nationals. Proposed policy responses include neighborhood organization and youth development.     

Use of Protection Motivation Theory to Assess Fear of Crime in Rural Areas

Fear of crime has long been the purview of sociology, with attitudes more extensively researched in higher risk urban populations. A sample of 184 rural participants from 36 states in the USA responded to a questionnaire on experiences of crime victimization, and attitudes toward crime, using the multidimensional Protection Motivation Theory (PMT) model. For the entire sample, perceived noxiousness of crime and personal risk corresponded to a recent history of victimization. Yet, victimization did not appear to alter perceptions of efficacy of proposed response or self efficacy in response to crime. When sorted by gender, women did express differences in perceptions of efficacy based on experience. The findings argue for fear of crime as a multidimensional construct, with implications for both research and applied programs.     

Fear of crime among Chinese immigrants in Metro-Detroit

Although a great deal of research has been conducted on fear of crime among the general public, much less is known about such fear among immigrants. Intensified fear may have detrimental consequences on immigrants’ lifestyles, acculturation process, and responses to law enforcement. Based on survey data collected from 148 Chinese immigrants in Metro-Detroit, this study assesses the effects of a variety of general and immigrant-specific explanatory factors on Chinese immigrants’ fear of crime. Results show that Chinese immigrants who had greater perceived risks of victimization, stronger perceptions of crime problems in home city, and lower English proficiency tended to have higher levels of fear of crime. Implications for policy and future research are discussed.