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Fear of crime

The fear of crime refers to the fear of being a victim of crime, which is not necessarily reflective of the actual probability of being a victim of crime.[1]

History

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Since the late 1960s, the study of fear of crime had grown considerably.[2]

In addition to rises in crime rates and experience, David Garland also notes the significance of high-visibility events in the 1960s US and 1980s UK as well as the drug-related crimes of the 1980s committed by people who were "often portrayed as desperate, driven and capable of mindless violence."[3]

Contributing factors

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While fear of crime can be differentiated into public feelings, thoughts and behaviors about the personal risk of criminal victimization, distinctions can also be made between the tendency to see situations as fearful, the actual experience while in those situations, and broader expressions about the cultural and social significance of crime and symbols of crime in people's neighborhoods and in their daily, symbolic lives.[4][5] Factors influencing the fear of crime include the psychology of risk perception,[6][7] circulating representations of the risk of victimization (chiefly via interpersonal communication and the mass media), public perceptions of neighborhood stability and breakdown,[8][9] the influence of neighbourhood context,[10][11][12] and broader factors where anxieties about crime express anxieties about the pace and direction of social change.[13][14] There are also some wider cultural influences. For example, some have argued that modern times have left people especially sensitive to issues of safety and insecurity.[15][2][16][17]

While people may feel angry and outraged about the extent and prospect of crime, surveys often ask people "who they are afraid of" and "how worried they are". Underlying the answers that people give are (more often than not) two dimensions of 'fear': (a) those everyday moments of worry that transpire when one feels personally threatened; and (b) some more diffuse or 'ambient' anxiety about risk. While standard measures of worry about crime regularly show between 30% and 50% of the population of England and Wales express some kind of worry about falling victim, probing reveals that few individuals actually worry for their own safety on an everyday basis.[18][19] One thus can distinguish between fear (an emotion, a feeling of alarm or dread caused by an awareness or expectation of danger) and some broader anxiety.[20][21] Some people may be more willing to admit their worries and vulnerabilities than others.[22]

People who feel especially vulnerable to victimization are more likely to report feeling that they are less able to defend themselves, they have low self-efficacy, they believe the consequences would be more significant than those with lower fear of crime, and they report feeling more likely to be a target of crime.[23] Warr argued in 1987 that 'sensitivity to risk' is not the same for all crimes and can vary dramatically from crime to crime depending on the perceived seriousness of a crime.[24]

First and second-hand experiences

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Hearing about events and knowing others who have been victimised are thought to raise perceptions of the risk of victimisation.[8][25][26][27] This has been described as a 'crime multiplier', or processes operating in the residential environment that would 'spread' the impacts of criminal events.[28] Skogan cautions '… many residents of a neighbourhood only know of [crime] indirectly via channels that may inflate, deflate, or garble the picture.'[29]

Perceptions of a community

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Public concern about neighbourhood disorder, social cohesion and collective efficacy correlates with fear of crime.[30][10] The incidence and risk of crime has become linked with perceived problems of social stability, moral consensus, and the collective informal control processes that underpin the social order of a neighborhood.[31] Such 'day-to-day' issues ('young people hanging around', 'poor community spirit', 'low levels of trust and cohesion') produce information about risk and generate a sense of unease, insecurity and distrust in the environment (incivilities signal a lack of conventional courtesies and low-level social order in public places).[32][33][34] Moreover, many people express through their fear of crime some broader concerns about neighbourhood breakdown, the loss of moral authority, and the crumbling of civility and social capital.[14][35][36]

People can come to different conclusions about the same social and physical environment: two individuals who live next door to each other and share the same neighbourhood can view local disorder quite differently.[37][38] Some research out of the UK has suggested that broader social anxieties about the pace and direction of social change may shift levels of tolerance to ambiguous stimuli in the environment.[5] Individuals who hold more authoritarian views about law and order, and who are especially concerned about a long-term deterioration of community, may be more likely to perceive disorder in their environment (net of the actual conditions of that environment). They may also be more likely to link these physical cues to problems of social cohesion and consensus, of declining quality of social bonds and informal social control.[35]:5

Media

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See also: Sensationalism and Media literacy
 
Full front pages of Japanese newspapers about a crime that left 3 injured

Public perceptions of the risk of crime are, in part, shaped by mass media coverage. Individuals pick up from media and interpersonal communication circulating images of the criminal event - the perpetrators, victims, motive, and representations of consequential, uncontrollable, and sensational crimes. The notion of 'stimulus similarity' may be key: if the reader of a newspaper identifies with the described victim, or feels that their own neighbourhood bears resemblance to the one described, then the image of risk may be taken up, personalised and translated into personal safety concerns.[39]

Yet the relationship between fear of crime and mass media lacks consensus in its causal ordering. Do people fear crime because a lot of crime is being shown on television, or does television just provide footage about crimes because people fear crime and want to see what's going on?[40][page needed] A number of studies suggest that the media selectively covers crime, distorting the perception of the everyday world of crime.[41]:4 Some scholars suggest the fear of crime is a more serious threat than crime itself.[41]:3 Some scholars suggest the media contributes to the climate of fear that is created, because the actual frequency of victimisation is a tiny fraction of potential crime.[2]

Robert Reiner found crime series remained stable at around 25% of fictional TV series in Britain from 1955-1991, while news coverage increased.[42]:206 Clive Emsley argued that newspapers have always discussed more serious crimes disproportionately because they were commercial entities seeking profit, when compared to minor crimes.[43]

Lee, Ellis, Keel, Wickes and Jackson (2022) have found that media fragmentation serves a protective function in challenging law and order rhetoric that might amplify fear of crime.[44]

Relationship to crime rates

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While fear of crime tends to rise with rising crime rates, the fear of crime tends not to fall as quickly when crime rates fall.[28][45] Taylor and Hale also argue that crime rates may be significantly different in neighborhoods with similar levels of fear about crime.[28]

David Garland believes that crime can become a 'settled cultural fact,' that is sustained by cultural scripts even if crime levels drop.[45] Because the relationship between crime and fear of crime can diverge, some governments also take measures to reduce the fear of crime in addition to measures that seek to reduce crime itself.[46]

Impacts

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Fear of crime has significant psychological and social impacts that influence public policy[45] and the built environment.[47] Fear of crime has been shown to reduce support for the government and even the type of regime (democracy, etc.).[48]

Fear of crime itself can erode individual wellbeing and community cohesion.[49] A possible avenue for fear of crime to impact health is if someone reduces healthy routine activities and habits such as exercise and socializing out of fear of crime.[50][51]

See also

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References

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  1. ^ Hale, C. (1996). Fear of crime: A review of the literature. International Review of Victimology, 4, 79-150.
  2. ^ a b Lee, Murray (November 2001). "The Genesis of 'Fear of Crime'". Theoretical Criminology. 5 (4): 467–485. doi:10.1177/1362480601005004004. ISSN 1362-4806.
  3. ^ Garland, David (2001). The culture of control: crime and social order in contemporary society. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. pp. 153–154. ISBN 978-0-226-28383-8.
  4. ^ Gabriel, U. (2003-06-01). "The Psychology of Fear of Crime. Conceptual and Methodological Perspectives". British Journal of Criminology. 43 (3): 600–614. doi:10.1093/bjc/43.3.600. ISSN 0007-0955.
  5. ^ a b Jackson, J. (2004-11-01). "Experience and Expression: Social and Cultural Significance in the Fear of Crime". British Journal of Criminology. 44 (6): 946–966. doi:10.1093/bjc/azh048. ISSN 0007-0955.
  6. ^ Jackson, J. (2006). Introducing Fear of Crime to Risk Research, Risk Analysis, 26, 1, 253-264
  7. ^ Jackson, J. (2011). 'Revisiting Risk Sensitivity in the Fear of Crime', Journal of Research in Crime and Delinquency, 48, 4, 513-537.
  8. ^ a b Skogan, W. and Maxfield, M. (1981) Coping with Crime, Beverly Hills: Sage.
  9. ^ Wilson. J.Q. and Kelling, G.L. (1982). 'Broken Windows'. Atlantic Monthly, March, 29-38.
  10. ^ a b Wyant, B.R. (2008). Multilevel impacts of perceived incivilities and perceptions of crime risk on fear of crime. Journal of Research in Crime and Delinquency, 45(1), 39-64.
  11. ^ Brunton-Smith, I., & Sturgis, P. (2011). Do neighbourhoods generate fear of crime? An empirical test using the British Crime Survey. Criminology, 49(2), 331-369.
  12. ^ Brunton-Smith, Ian; Jackson, Jonathan (2012). "Urban Fear and its Roots in Place". In Ceccato, Vania (ed.). Urban Fabric of Crime and Fear. London: Springer. pp. 55–82. SSRN 1670657.
  13. ^ Merry, S. (1981). Urban Danger: Life in a Neighborhood of Strangers. Philadelphia: Temple University Press.
  14. ^ a b Girling, E., Loader, I. & Sparks, R. (2000). Crime and Social Control in Middle England: Questions of Order in an English Town. London: Routledge.
  15. ^ Lee, M. (1999). The fear of crime and self-governance: Towards a genealogy. The Australian and New Zealand Journal of Criminology, 32(3), 227-246.
  16. ^ Furedi, F. (2006). The politics of fear: Beyond left and right. London: Continuum Press.
  17. ^ Zedner, Lucia (September 2003). "Too much security?". International Journal of the Sociology of Law. 31 (3): 155–184. doi:10.1016/j.ijsl.2003.09.002.
  18. ^ Farrall, S. (2004-01-01). "Research Note: The Frequency of the Fear of Crime". British Journal of Criminology. 44 (1): 127–132. doi:10.1093/bjc/44.1.127. ISSN 0007-0955.
  19. ^ Gray, Emily; Jackson, Jonathan; Farrall, Stephen (July 2008). "Reassessing the Fear of Crime". European Journal of Criminology. 5 (3): 363–380. doi:10.1177/1477370808090834. ISSN 1477-3708.
  20. ^ Warr, M. (2000). Fear of crime in the United States: Avenues for research and policy. Criminal Justice, 4: 451—489.
  21. ^ Sacco, V. (2005). When Crime Waves, Sage Publications/Pine Forge Press, Thousand Oaks, CA.
  22. ^ Sutton, R. M. (2004-08-02). "Gender, Socially Desirable Responding and the Fear of Crime: Are Women Really More Anxious about Crime?". British Journal of Criminology. 45 (2): 212–224. doi:10.1093/bjc/azh084. ISSN 0007-0955.
  23. ^ Jackson, J. (2009). A Psychological Perspective on Vulnerability in the Fear of Crime. Psychology, Crime and Law, 15, 4, 365-390.
  24. ^ Warr, M. (1987). Fear of victimisation and sensitivity to risk. Journal of Quantitative Criminology, 3, 29-46.
  25. ^ Tyler, T. R. (1984) 'Assessing the risk of crime victimization: The integration of personal victimization experience and socially transmitted information.' Journal of Social Issues, 40, 27-38.
  26. ^ Tyler, T.R. (1980) 'Impact of Directly and Indirectly Experienced Events: The Origin of Crime-related Judgements and Behaviours' Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 39:13-28.
  27. ^ Covington, J. and Taylor, R. B. (1991). "Fear of Crime in Urban Residential Neighbourhoods: Implications of Between- and Within- Neighborhood Sources for Current Models. The Sociological Quarterly, 32, 2, 231-249.
  28. ^ a b c Taylor, R. B. and Hale, M. (1986). "Testing Alternative Models of Fear of Crime". The Journal of Criminal Law, Criminology and Police Science, 77, 1, 151-189. (This Journal later changed its name to Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology)
  29. ^ Skogan, W. (1986) 'Fear of crime and neighborhood change'. Crime and Justice, 8, 203-229.
  30. ^ Perkins, D. & Taylor, R. (1996). Ecological assessments of community disorder: Their relationship to fear of crime and theoretical implications. American Journal of Community Psychology, 24, 63-107.
  31. ^ Bannister, J. (1993). Locating fear: Environmental and ontological security. In H. Jones (Ed.), Crime and the urban environment (pp. 69-84). Aldershot: Avebury.
  32. ^ Innes, M. (2004) Signal crimes and signal disorders: Notes on deviance as communicative action. British Journal of Sociology, 55, 317-334.
  33. ^ Tulloch, M. (2003). Combining classificatory and discursive methods: Consistency and variability in responses to the threat of crime. British Journal of Social Psychology, 42(3), 461-476.
  34. ^ Goffman, E. (1971) Relations in Public. New York: Basic Books.
  35. ^ a b Farrall, S., Jackson, J. and Gray, E. (2009). 'Social Order and Fear of Crime in Contemporary Times', Oxford: Oxford University Press, Clarendon Studies in Criminology.
  36. ^ Intravia, J.; Stewart, E.; Warren, P.; Wolff, K. (2016). "Neighborhood disorder and generalized trust: A multilevel mediation examination of social mechanisms". Journal of Criminal Justice. 46 (1): 148–158. doi:10.1016/j.jcrimjus.2016.05.003.
  37. ^ Carvalho, I. & Lewis, D. A. (2003). Beyond community: Reactions to crime and disorder among inner-city residents. Criminology, 41, 779-812.
  38. ^ Sampson, R. J. and Raudenbush, S. W. (2004). Seeing Disorder: Neighborhood Stigma and the Social Construction of "Broken Windows". Social Psychology Quarterly 67: 319-342.
  39. ^ Winkel, F. W. & Vrij, A. (1990). Fear of crime and mass media crime reports: Testing similarity hypotheses. International Review of Victimology, 1, 251-265.
  40. ^ Silva, Cynthia; Guedes, Inês (2023). "The Role of the Media in the Fear of Crime: A Qualitative Study in the Portuguese Context". Criminal Justice Review. 48 (3): 300–317. doi:10.1177/07340168221088570. ISSN 0734-0168.
  41. ^ a b Ferraro, K. (1995). Fear of Crime: Interpreting Victimisation Risk. State University of New York press, Albany.
  42. ^ Maguire, M. Morgan, R. and Reiner, R. (1997). Oxford Handbook of Criminology. Oxford University Press, Oxford.
  43. ^ Emsley, Clive (May 2008). "Violent crime in England in 1919: post-war anxieties and press narratives". Continuity and Change. 23 (1): 182. doi:10.1017/S026841600800670X. ISSN 0268-4160.
  44. ^ Lee, Murray; Ellis, Justin R; Keel, Chloe; Wickes, Rebecca; Jackson, Jonathan (2022-09-01). "When Law-And-Order Politics Fail: Media Fragmentation and Protective Factors That Limit the Politics of Fear". The British Journal of Criminology. 62 (5): 1270–1288. doi:10.1093/bjc/azac038. ISSN 0007-0955.
  45. ^ a b c Garland, David (2001). The culture of control: crime and social order in contemporary society. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. p. 164. ISBN 978-0-226-28383-8.
  46. ^ Garland, David (2001). The culture of control: crime and social order in contemporary society. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. p. 10. ISBN 978-0-226-28383-8. Fear of crime has come to be regarded as a major social problem...Fear of crime has come to be regarded as a problem in and of itself, quite distinct from actual crime and victimization, and distinctive policies have been developed that aim to reduce fear levels, rather than to reduce crime.
  47. ^ Vilalta, Carlos J. (June 2011). "Fear of crime in gated communities and apartment buildings: a comparison of housing types and a test of theories". Journal of Housing and the Built Environment. 26 (2): 107–121. doi:10.1007/s10901-011-9211-3. ISSN 1566-4910.
  48. ^ Fernandez, Kenneth E.; Kuenzi, Michele (June 2010). "Crime and Support for Democracy in Africa and Latin America". Political Studies. 58 (3): 450–471. doi:10.1111/j.1467-9248.2009.00802.x. ISSN 0032-3217.
  49. ^ Jackson, J. & Stafford, M. (2009). Public health and fear of crime: A prospective cohort study. British Journal of Criminology, 49, 6, 832-847
  50. ^ Stafford, M., Chandola, T., & Marmot, M. (2007). Association between fear of crime and mental health and physical functioning. American Journal of Public Health, 97, 2076-2081.
  51. ^ Rader, Nicole (2017-03-29), "Fear of Crime", Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Criminology and Criminal Justice, Oxford University Press, doi:10.1093/acrefore/9780190264079.013.10, ISBN 978-0-19-026407-9, retrieved 2024-04-28
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