Previous researchers have recommended that universities should be deemed very safe places. However, reports of crime have dominated the news, including shootings and mass murders at schools and universities. The issue of reality versus perception is of foremost importance when student safety is at stake. In this paper, the researcher presents the findings from unique data collected from university students related to situational crime prevention, fear of crime, self-protective behaviors, and perceptions of crime prevention programs to better understand the antecedent variables relating to crime prevention. / Includes bibliography. / Thesis (M.S.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2014. / FAU Electronic Theses and Dissertations Collection

Oro och otrygghet är komplexa fenomen som ofta undersöks ur ett kriminologiskt perspektiv, så även i den nationella trygghetsundersökningen (NTU). För att försöka förstå hur oro och otrygghet framställs och motiveras som policyproblem har vi undersökt problemframställningar i NTU med Carol Lee Bacchis WPR-ansats. Vi identifierade framställningar av ett “säkerhetsproblem”, ett “kunskapsproblem” och ett “samhällsbildsproblem”. Utifrån dessa problemframställningar ifrågasätter vi beskrivningen av NTU som “faktabaserad kunskap” och konstaterar att möjligheterna att sakligt kartlägga oro och otrygghet inte problematiseras tillräckligt. Istället talar vår analys för att denna trygghetsundersökning både producerar och reproducerar representationer av otrygghet och därmed fungerar som bränsle för den mediala och politiska riskmedvetenheten i ett samhälle präglat av ett starkt säkerhetsideal. För att förändra detta ser vi ett behov av att både vetenskapligt och politiskt klargöra motiven för att studera subjektiv otrygghet. / Feelings of worry and insecurity are complex phenomena commonly studied from a criminological perspective. This also applies for The Swedish Crime Survey (SCS). To understand how these feelings are constructed and motivated as policy issues, we analysed problem representations in the SCS, using Carol Lee Bacchi’s WPR-approach. We identified representations of a “security problem”, a “knowledge problem” and a “societal image problem”. On the basis of these problem representations we question the SCS as a source of “fact-based knowledge” and find that the possibility to objectively index feelings of insecurity are not adequately problematized in the report. Instead, our analysis suggests that this survey produces and reproduces representations of fear, thereby maintaining a medial and political risk awareness in a society characterized by a strong security ideal. To rectify this, we see a need to both scientifically and politically clarify the motives behind studying subjective insecurity.

HTML clipboardThis study is about Homeowner’s architectural responses to crime in Dar es Salaam Tanzania: its impacts and implications to urban architecture, urban design and urban management. The study explores and examines the processes through which homeowners respond to crimes of burglary, home robbery and fear of it using architectural or physical elements. The processes are explored and examined using case study methodology in three cases in Dar es Salaam. The cases are residential areas of Mikocheni B, Ilala Kasulu and Chang’ombe Housing. The findings from the three cases are compared and the common findings are illuminated and discussed using criminology, economic and social theories and concepts. The results of the study show that, homeowners physically and architecturally modify their home environments for many reasons. Homeowners do so by building or erecting wall fences around their houses and install or barricade doors and windows using metal bars. From the study, the notable main reasons are security and protection from burglary, thefts, home robbery and visual and physical privacy. Others include property marking, disputes and misunderstandings between neighbours and property encroachment by neighbours. In the study, it has been established that, the actions by the homeowners in responding to crime of burglary, thievery and home robberies have impacts and implications on the built environment. The impacts are: affects the visual experience of the built form by limiting view to houses; keeps neighbours apart thus limiting social interaction among residents; segregating public spaces and thus making them empty without people; encroaching on the streets; reducing surveilability of streets and neighbouring dwellings; create the impression of ‘private appearance’ therefore stigmataizing the residential neighbourhoods, all of which increase the vulnerability of areas as well as enhancing the ‘subjective’ feeling of fear in the areas. Furthermore, the responses pose risks to residents when fire evacuation from homes is required, including the effects that affect the environmental comfort conditions of homes and the overall built environment. Despite of the impacts to the built environment as summarised in the foregoing, the study has shown that, homeowners still erect wall fences and barricade their homes due to fear arising from previous crimes. On the basis of the impacts, a new approach to planning of residential housing areas is recommended in which the question of security against crime is included as design factor particularly in urban design. Either an approach to architectural design of houses and the layout of houses that considers crime as an important factor in addition to ‘target hardening’ approach is recommended to increase visibility and surveilability of built environments. The study concludes by highlighting five implications to urban architecture, urban design and urban management at planning and architectural design, considerations which may be of impacts towards improving built environment and management of the urban residential arena. The study ends by outlining and recommending areas of further research. / QC 20100706

University of Macau / Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities / Department of Sociology

The purpose of this study is to understand the fear of crime in the society. The studies in the literature, which focus on sociology of crime in general and the fear of crime in particular, were carried out within the social dynamics of other countries, and mostly the western societies. In this sense, it is clear that there is a need to make evaluations that specifically address our society. In this study, it was aimed to achieve a holistic analysis of fear of crime, based on the question &ldquo / what are the factors that determine fear of crime in individuals?&rdquo / It is assumed that there are many factors that determine fear of crime in individuals. Differences in socio-economic status, which can be counted among these factors, are addressed under the scope of this study. It is assumed that people from different socio-economic statuses can also experience fear of crime in different ways. To this end, a field survey was conducted in the districts of &Ccedil / ankaya and Altindag in the province of Ankara, and a total of 510 individuals were surveyed through a questionnaire. According to the results of the survey, incivilities appear as the most determinant factor of fear of crime in the society, followed by districts, which represent the area of living and which were used as a basis in sample selection for this survey / the third factor that determines fear of crime is gender, and the fifth factor is the indirect victimization. Other findings of the survey are discussed throughout the thesis.

Fear of crime is a phenomenon which affects individuals&#039 / standard of living and influences their everyday behaviors. In this sense, it can be said that if a person has high fear of crime, this will have a negative effect on his or her standard of living. Fear of crime does not always bear resemblance to the crime rate of the society. From this standpoint, residents of a region where crime rate is high do not always have high fear of crime. Similarly, the residents of a region where crime rate is low may have high fear of crime. This situation points out the need of an extensive analysis on fear of crime as a significant variable regarding individuals&#039 / standard of living. This study aims to examine the relationship between perceived risk of victimization and fear of crime. Studies about fear of crime mainly focus on gender differences, social inequalities and physical incivilities. all of this factor are important element to grasp its nature and dimensions of fear of crime. In addition to this factors fear of crime is affected by individuals risk perception of victimization. Our study aims to deal fear of crime concept among students in a multidimensional approach. In this respect, it will evaluate how much the students are afraid of and uncomfortable with being exposed to a crime rather than the assessing merely the possibility of being exposed to a crime. The study will measure the concept of fear of crime over the concept of anticipated fear according to Ferraro&rsquo / s (1995) model. The advantage of this approach is that it allows the measurement of fear of crime the individuals show as a result of contacting other person and environment rather than the instantaneous fears. Our study will evaluate the Metu students&rsquo / fear of crime in terms of specific crimes rather than a general evaluation of crime in line with the approach of risk perception. In this sense, our study seeks to measure the fear of crime over certain crimes such as theft, robbery, simple attack, serious attack and sexual abuse.

Thesis (M.A.)--The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 2007. / Adviser: Liesbet Hooghe. Includes bibliographical references.

No description available.

An Arbeiten zur personalen Dimension der Kriminalitätsfurcht – gemessen an der Furcht im Umkreis der Wohnung – mangelt es nicht. Die anhaltende Diskussion um Ergebnisse zum Kriminalitätsfurchtparadox, Kontroversen um die Methodik, Vulnerabilität, Copingfähigkeiten usw. belegen ein komplexes Bemühen in diesem Forschungskontext, um die Ursachen der Kriminalitätsfurcht genauer zu bestimmen. Kaum theoretische Beachtung dagegen findet die soziale Dimension der Kriminalitätsfurcht, die zuweilen sogar mit der personalen Dimension gleichgesetzt wird. Möglicherweise sind es die "dramatischeren" Werte der sozialen Dimension, welche eine gewisse Anziehungskraft, z. B. auf mediale Präsentationen, ausüben. Neben dem Anliegen einer grundsätzlichen Klärung der Aussagekraft dieses Konstrukts im wissenschaftlichen Disput sollte auch beachtet werden, dass immer mehr Kommunen Sicherheitsbefragungen durchführen lassen und bestrebt sind, daraus Rückschlüsse für die Kommunalpolitik zu ziehen. Auch deshalb scheint eine Klärung, welches Konstrukt worüber Auskunft geben kann, dringend geboten. Immerhin erhält gerade die Kriminalitätsfurcht bzw. das Sicherheitsempfinden eine öffentliche Aufmerksamkeit, wie sie für Ergebnisse sozialwissenschaftlicher Forschungen nicht gerade typisch ist. Gerade weil damit aber die Verkürzung eines komplexen sozialen Sachverhalts auf eine Zahl geschieht, ist eine genaue Bestimmung dessen erforderlich, welche Zahl was ausdrückt. Darüber hinaus ist eine Positionierung der personalen und sozialen Dimensionen der Kriminalitätsfurcht dahingehend geboten, dass sie keine demonstrativen (Wettbewerbs-)Items darstellen, sondern als Instrumente für die Analyse von Mechanismen der Kriminalitätsverarbeitung in der Bevölkerung zu verstehen sind. Gerade in Bezug auf eine kommunalpolitische Aufmerksamkeit gegenüber dem gemessenen Sicherheitsempfinden zeichnen sich Tendenzen ab, entweder Ergebnisse zur Intensität der Kriminalitätsfurcht nicht ernst zu nehmen (im Sinne einer subjektiv verzerrten Wahrnehmung, der man durch "Aufklärung" begegnen kann) oder sie überzubewerten, indem sie zur Begründung restriktiver Maßnahmen herangezogen werden (umfassendere Maßnahmen für die öffentliche Sicherheit anzustreben). Im Zusammenhang mit der Unterscheidung zwischen personaler und sozialer Kriminalitätsfurcht soll der Einfluss von der Medienrezeption bestimmt werden.

published_or_final_version / Sociology / Master / Master of Social Sciences