The object of this project is to investigate people’s fear of crime. By means of three studies, the dissertation illustrates how the fear of crime is understood in Anglo-Saxon and Nordic research, by a group of interview subjects and also how this fear is depicted in Stockholm’s daily press. In the research, fear of crime is viewed as an individual problem that is not linked to exposure to crime. Instead the fear is explained by reference to individual factors, situational factors and societal conditions. The views described in the research have changed over time, with inter alia an increasing number of groups being described as experiencing fear. The interview study is based on 28 in-depth interviews with persons living in different areas of Stockholm. In summary, the interview subjects are not afraid of crime, and they say they do not think about crime in the course of their daily lives. They may perceive fear in certain situations, in specific locations and when faced with unknown people. These situations are characterised by a lack of control, which tends to be linked to the fear of crime. This fear also appears clearly to be influenced by the media. In the press, the fear of crime is not only depicted in relation to public places, but also in the home and at the workplace. The absence of police is described as one of the reasons for this fear. It is also acceptable for men to express a fear of crime in the newspaper articles. The descriptions expressed in the interviews and in the press reflect some of the theories propounded on the risk society. Risk appears to be perceived as separate from fear. A reduction in crime would therefore be likely to lead to a reduction in the risk of exposure to crime, but not always in the fear of crime. This fear may instead probably be reduced by measures that increase people’s sense of control.

Fear of crime has been a major social and political issue in Western societies. Previous studies have established that older people are disturbed disproportionately by fear of crime, which can accelerate their loss of physical and social functioning. Despite the rapidly ageing population and the sharp rise of crime in urban China, there is a paucity of research on the fear of crime in older Chinese, not to mention the lack of sound psychometric instruments or any established theoretical model. This study systematically investigated the fear of crime in older Chinese living in urban China. It involves two phases. In Phase One of the study, existing measures on fear of crime, perceived risk of crime and constrained behaviors were culturally adapted through a series of consultation with expert panels and pilot testing. Results indicated that all adapted scales exhibited satisfactory internal reliability with Cronbach’s alphas ranging from .81 to .94. In Phase Two of this study, an integrated theoretical model incorporating the vulnerability, environment perception, victimization and risk interpretation models was tested. The model takes into account relevant Chinese cultural values, while simultaneously addressing the impacts of fear of crime on mental health and constrained behaviors. A representative sample of 453 older adults aged 60 years or above was recruited from urban communities in Kunming, Yunnan using multistage sampling methods. Participants were individually interviewed. Results show that fear of crime was prevalent in this sample with 258 participants (57.0%) reporting fear of one or more types of depicted crimes. Path analyses show that the proposed integrated theoretical framework effectively captures the relationship between fear of crime and various hypothesized factors. The model accounted for 22.1% of the variance in perceived risk of crime, 35.8% in fear of crime, 31.2% in poor mental health and 21.4% in constrained behaviors. Perceived risk of crime played a central role in inducing fear of crime and mediated the associations between fear of crime and various hypothesized risk factors, including female gender, a younger age, higher perceived social instability, lower adherence to the Chinese cultural value of Harmony and more direct victimization by crime. In regard to impact, being fearful of crime predisposes participants to more constrained behaviors, while a high level of perceived risk impaired their mental health. This study is among the first empirical endeavors to investigate fear of crime experienced by older Chinese. It provides preliminary support for the applicability of various prominent theoretical models in the Chinese setting. Results also established a novel association between fear of crime and the Chinese cultural value of Harmony. The integrated model provides a comprehensive framework for understanding the underlying genesis mechanism of fear of crime experienced by older Chinese. / published_or_final_version / Social Work and Social Administration / Doctoral / Doctor of Philosophy

There are a number of issues within the fear of crime literature, such as problems defining and measuring fear of crime, which continue to exist. Thus, the first aim of this thesis was to empirically test a new fear of crime model that consists of three components: fear of victimization (emotive), perceived risk (cognitive) and constrained behaviour (behavioural). The multiple component theory posits that a reciprocal relationship exists between the components that contribute to people feeling threatened by criminal victimization (also referred to as the threat of victimization). Past research has also indicated that gender is always a significant predictor of fear of crime, and therefore was included in the test to assess if women continue to feel threatened by victimization more than men in the new model. Finally two common theories used to explain why women fear crime more than men; specifically gender construction that equates femininity with vulnerability and masculinity with invulnerability and prior experience with intimate partner violence and stalking, were explored. The data came from the Statistics Canada General Social Survey 2004: Cycle 18, which is a Canadian telephone survey that measures fear of crime as well as various types of criminal victimization. A quantitative analysis was done using multiple logistic regressions to assess all three objectives. Results for this thesis indicate that a reciprocal relationship exists between all three components of the threat of victimization and must continue to be measured as separate constructs. Perceived risk and constrained behaviour are particularly influenced by gender construction and intimate partner violence and stalking victimization. It is concluded that accurate and consistent measures need to be created for each of the components of the threat of victimization to facilitate validity, replication and comparison. As well, (in)vulnerability linked to masculinity and femininity, appear to have negative implications for both women and men in relation to the threat of victimization, which need to be addressed through education and active resistance.

There are a number of issues within the fear of crime literature, such as problems defining and measuring fear of crime, which continue to exist. Thus, the first aim of this thesis was to empirically test a new fear of crime model that consists of three components: fear of victimization (emotive), perceived risk (cognitive) and constrained behaviour (behavioural). The multiple component theory posits that a reciprocal relationship exists between the components that contribute to people feeling threatened by criminal victimization (also referred to as the threat of victimization). Past research has also indicated that gender is always a significant predictor of fear of crime, and therefore was included in the test to assess if women continue to feel threatened by victimization more than men in the new model. Finally two common theories used to explain why women fear crime more than men; specifically gender construction that equates femininity with vulnerability and masculinity with invulnerability and prior experience with intimate partner violence and stalking, were explored. The data came from the Statistics Canada General Social Survey 2004: Cycle 18, which is a Canadian telephone survey that measures fear of crime as well as various types of criminal victimization. A quantitative analysis was done using multiple logistic regressions to assess all three objectives. Results for this thesis indicate that a reciprocal relationship exists between all three components of the threat of victimization and must continue to be measured as separate constructs. Perceived risk and constrained behaviour are particularly influenced by gender construction and intimate partner violence and stalking victimization. It is concluded that accurate and consistent measures need to be created for each of the components of the threat of victimization to facilitate validity, replication and comparison. As well, (in)vulnerability linked to masculinity and femininity, appear to have negative implications for both women and men in relation to the threat of victimization, which need to be addressed through education and active resistance.

Introduction: Fear of crime is widely studied in the criminological field and refers to the individual's perception and evaluation of a potential danger. Fear of crime holds both direct and indirect causes where direct causes refer to feelings of fear after previous victimization. Indirect causes refer to those who are frightened by the possibility to be victimized. Aim: This study aimed to explore the feelings of safety among the population in a middle-sized town in Sweden. Method: Data was collected using a replica of the National Safety Survey. This study used a simple randomized sample and the questionnaire was sent to 1010 participants, 298 responded to the survey, which meant a response rate of 29.5%. Results: Most of the participants in the studied city (87%) reported concern about the criminality. The female gender and earlier victimization were associated with higher levels of concern. The majority of the respondents reported feeling safe in their own neighborhood, but almost half of them felt unsafe in another area; where the residential area Nacksta, bus station and train station were distinctive. The respondents felt quite big trust for the police and the authorities, but earlier victimization and higher levels of concern for criminality were associated with lower levels of trust. Discussion: A discussion of the results regarding the concern for criminality, unsafe feelings and trust in the police is provided. The differences and similarities were discussed from a theoretical perspective and a comparison with the National Safety Survey has been made. / <p>2017-06-01</p>

Fear of crime is a well-explored field within criminology. Although inconsistencies exist, it is mostly defined as an emotional reaction to crime or aspects of crime. Consequences can affect society indirectly but are mainly on an individual level. For example, an individual can decide to avoid certain environments. One of these environments can be cyberspace, the internet, as individuals can experience fear of online criminal activity. This area of research has not been explored as much as fear of traditional crime. A systematic literature review is conducted to analyse the body of research that applies the concept fear of crime to cybercrime. With the purpose to assess the much-discussed concept fear of crime to a new subset of crimes within criminology, cybercrime. This review has shown that challenges and limitations from traditional fear of crime research are still present in fear of crime research of the online environment. Findings are in part in line with previously published studies on the subjects and provide a knowledge base for future research. The paper concludes that the online environment does not seem to stand on its own when it comes to feelings of fear, and that the broader context of an individual’s experiences should be considered.

Magister Artium (Development Studies) - MA(DVS) / This study will use secondary data analysis of academic articles to study the topic under question. Much has been written on fear of crime from a quantitative and to a lesser extent qualitative approach (Burgess and Doran 2012) but little attention has been on this fear as an emotion from an interpretive sociological approach. The approach to emotions employed in this study will draw on Hochschild’s (1983) notion that emotions have signal functions and that emotions constitute a sense just like hearing and seeing, and in her estimation the most important one. Briefly stated, fear (of crime) signals to the person experiencing the emotion that something is worth being wary of; this in turn is based on expectations –and assumptions– of what a safe and orderly situation/environment or person is.

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This paper investigates the influence of individual level factors and social capital on fear ofcrime construction amongst citizens and non-citizens in a cross-national context. Regressionanalysis of the European Social Survey (Round 9) demonstrated that the relative importanceof socio-economic individual level factors is stable across countries and consistent withprevious research. Contradictory to theoretical assumptions, only marginal differences in fearof crime levels, social trust levels and attitudes were found when natives and non-nativeswere compared, even when controlling for confounding variables. Furthermore, the researchhighlights and confirms the explanatory power of social trust in explaining differing fear ofcrime levels. The relative importance of environmental factors and shortcomings ofmeasuring fear of crime with a single item indicator are emphasized.

No description available.