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.     

A Note on the Role of Basic Theory in Thinking About Crime Prevention

Junger-Tas (Journal of Quantitative Criminology 8(1):9–28, 1992) studied the empirical validity of control theory and argued for a connection between basic theory and delinquency prevention policies (European Journal of Criminal Policy and Research 5(2):101–114, 1997). High quality experiments, including those with random assignment to different treatments and designs that include multiple indicators of outcome have produced a strong body of knowledge that may, and should, be used to assess the validity of basic theories of causation. One essential test of basic theories can thus be how well they can make sense of widely acknowledged facts produced by high quality policy research. To be sure, theories vary in scope, domain of application and level of abstraction, and policy implications can be difficult to infer, so care should be exercised in such an analysis. These notions are applied to control theories of delinquency which arguably provide clear expectations about the likely effectiveness of some public policies about crime. Recent research appears consistent with control theory expectations and with Junger-Tas’ long-standing view for a role for basic science for juvenile policy.     

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.     

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.     

Unemployment, Economic Theory, and Property Crime: A Note on Measurement

Drawing on rational choice theory, this study considers how best to measureunemployment within the context of the unemployment–property crimerelationship. Specifically, we use ARIMA techniques to examine the relativeefficacy of using the conventional Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS)unemployment rate and two alternative measures of the demand for labor aspredictors of monthly counts of U.S. property offenses for the years 1982through 1996. The bivariate time series analyses indicate that while theBLS unemployment rate exhibits null effects, the number of individualsunemployed for 15 weeks or more and the capacity utilization ratesignificantly affect the level of property crime. The implications ofthese results are discussed.     

Examining the Effects of Health in Explaining Fear of Crime: A Multi-Dimensional and Multi-Level Analysis

We examine the understudied link between mental/physical health problems and their relationship with perceived unsafety via higher levels of vulnerability. We examine this relationship by linking data at the individual-level, the neighborhood-level, and the county-level using the Portraits of American Life Survey (PALS). Using this data we examine the effect of individual and neighborhood conditions on perceived safety while controlling for county-level crime rates. Findings indicate that higher numbers of physical impairment and mental health issues are independently related to higher levels of perceived unsafety. Both mental and physical health problems are associated with higher levels of fear. These higher levels of vulnerability then directly contribute to higher levels of feeling of unsafety. Unlike past research, we find a mental health link to fear of crime that cannot be explained by physical impairments.     

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.     

犯罪治理数字孪生体研究

犯罪治理的复杂特性迫切需要新科技介入研究。随着数字化时代的到来,犯罪治理现代化的研究和建设采取智能化手段已成可能,以此来提升精准犯罪治理的程度,达到更好的治理效果。针对处于复杂高阶多维的犯罪治理社会实体,结合数字孪生高逼真行为仿真特性和人工智能深度学习强大的数据挖掘能力,引入数字孪生进行犯罪治理现代化研究,从而构建犯罪治理数字孪生体。通过在虚拟空间可视化与分析实现犯罪治理现代化管理、预测预警、态势预判、模拟仿真、计算试验等,实现实时监测数据驱动下的犯罪在线治理,为犯罪治理现代化探索新思路。     

A Research Note

ABSTRACT

This paper deals with a sparsely researched topic-the victimization of females by fraud. A nationwide survey of victims of a large-scale telemarketing scheme showed that onlya small percentage of the victims were females. Both financial and emotional consequencesgenerally were more severe for the older than for the younger women.     

A Multilevel Analysis of the Vulnerability,Disorder, and Social Integration Models of Fear of Crime

The current research tests three conceptual models designed to explain citizens’ fear of crime—vulnerability, disorder, and social integration. These models are assessed for differential impact across the cognitive and affective dimensions of fear of crime. The analysis reported here considers the consecutive and simultaneous influence of individual- and city-level factors using multilevel modeling techniques. Recently collected survey data for 2,599 citizens nested within 21 cities across Washington State provide the empirical evidence for the analysis. Results indicate that the disorder model is best able to explain variation in both the cognitive and affective dimensions of citizens’ fear of crime across cities. The vulnerability and social integration models explain significantly less variation. Further, the vulnerability model lacks directional consistency across the observed dimensions of fear. Societal implications of the research findings are discussed.