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>

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Hot spots policing is a popular and effective evidence-based police intervention with several benefits. However, since the primary resource of the intervention is intensified police presence leading to an increase in citizen-police interactions, critics have argued that the intervention negatively affects police-citizen relationships and public perceptions and attitudes toward the police. To advance research on the effects of hot spots policing, this study examines the impacts of the hot spots policing intervention on residents’ trust in, and fear of, the police. The study utilized a secondary dataset from a U.S. DOJ/NIJ-funded project in New York City, NY (2012-2018) examining the effects of hot spots policing and police-resident familiarity on offender decision making and crime prevention. The results of chi-square test of association and ordinal logistic regression analyses show that the hot spots policing intervention has no significant impact on residents’ reported level of trust in, and fear of, the police. In addition, the impacts of residents’ age, race, gender, as well as familiarity are also analyzed. Further, the interaction between the intervention and police-resident familiarity does not significantly moderate the relationship between hot spots policing and residents’ reported level of trust in, and fear towards, the police. The implications of these findings are also discussed.

Numerous studies have been conducted to determine predictors of perceptions and attitudes toward police. Less effort has been spent on determining university and college students' perceptions of campus police departments. The purpose of this thesis was to fill this gap in the literature with an added emphasis on exploring potential differences in perceptions between students involved in Greek Life organizations and students not involved in Greek Life organizations. Prior literature found that Greek Life students engage in risk-taking behaviors at higher rates than their counterparts, so it was hypothesized that Greek Life students would have higher levels of distrust in the campus police due to their increased engagement in risk-taking behaviors. The survey questionnaire measuring trust and procedural justice/legitimacy perceptions of campus police was distributed through convenience sampling to university students. Descriptive statistics, bivariate analyses, and multivariate analyses were utilized to analyze the data. The results showed that students overall had positive perceptions of campus police, that Greek Life students had more negative perceptions of the campus police than non-Greek Life students, and that students with prior interactions with the campus police were more likely to perceive the police to be less procedurally just/legitimate. Race/ethnicity was not found to be a predictor in perceptions of trust or procedural justice/legitimacy of the campus police. Limitations, policy implications, and suggestions for future research concerning student perceptions of campus police were also discussed.