Fear of crime

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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]

Contents

History

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

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

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

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

Full front pages of Japanese newspapers about a crime that left 3 injured Black news day (14390694137).jpg
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

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

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

Related Research Articles

In ordinary language, a crime is an unlawful act punishable by a state or other authority. The term crime does not, in modern criminal law, have any simple and universally accepted definition, though statutory definitions have been provided for certain purposes. The most popular view is that crime is a category created by law; in other words, something is a crime if declared as such by the relevant and applicable law. One proposed definition is that a crime or offence is an act harmful not only to some individual but also to a community, society, or the state. Such acts are forbidden and punishable by law.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Victimology</span> Study of victimization

Victimology is the study of victimization, including the psychological effects on victims, the relationship between victims and offenders, the interactions between victims and the criminal justice system—that is, the police and courts, and corrections officials—and the connections between victims and other social groups and institutions, such as the media, businesses, and social movements.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Broken windows theory</span> Criminological theory

In criminology, the broken windows theory states that visible signs of crime, antisocial behavior and civil disorder create an urban environment that encourages further crime and disorder, including serious crimes. The theory suggests that policing methods that target minor crimes, such as vandalism, loitering, public drinking and fare evasion, help to create an atmosphere of order and lawfulness.

Criminal psychology, also referred to as criminological psychology, is the study of the views, thoughts, intentions, actions and reactions of criminals and suspects. It is a subfield of criminology and applied psychology.

Sex differences in crime are differences between men and women as the perpetrators or victims of crime. Such studies may belong to fields such as criminology, sociobiology, or feminist studies. Despite the difficulty of interpreting them, crime statistics may provide a way to investigate such a relationship from a gender differences perspective. An observable difference in crime rates between men and women might be due to social and cultural factors, crimes going unreported, or to biological factors. The nature or motive of the crime itself may also require consideration as a factor. Gendered profiling might affect the reported crime rates.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Environmental criminology</span>

Environmental criminology focuses on criminal patterns within particular built environments and analyzes the impacts of these external variables on people's cognitive behavior. It forms a part of criminology's Positivist School in that it applies the scientific method to examine the society that causes crime.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Strain theory (sociology)</span> Theory that social structures within society may pressure citizens to commit crime

In the fields of sociology and criminology, strain theory is a theoretical perspective that aims to explain the relationship between social structure, social values or goals, and crime. Strain theory was originally introduced by Robert King Merton (1938), and argues that society's dominant cultural values and social structure causes strain, which may encourage citizens to commit crimes. Following on the work of Émile Durkheim's theory of anomie, strain theory has been advanced by Robert King Merton (1938), Albert K. Cohen (1955), Richard Cloward, Lloyd Ohlin (1960), Neil Smelser (1963), Robert Agnew (1992), Steven Messner, Richard Rosenfeld (1994) and Jie Zhang (2012).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Left realism</span>

Left realism emerged in criminology from critical criminology as a reaction against what was perceived to be the left's failure to take a practical interest in everyday crime, allowing right realism to monopolize the political agenda on law and order. Left realism argues that crime disproportionately affects working-class people, but that solutions that only increase repression serve to make the crime problem worse. Instead they argue that the root causes of crime lie in relative deprivation, although preventive measures and policing are necessary, but these should be democratically controlled.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Routine activity theory</span> Theory in criminology

Routine activity theory is a sub-field of crime opportunity theory that focuses on situations of crimes. It was first proposed by Marcus Felson and Lawrence E. Cohen in their explanation of crime rate changes in the United States between 1947 and 1974. The theory has been extensively applied and has become one of the most cited theories in criminology. Unlike criminological theories of criminality, routine activity theory studies crime as an event, closely relates crime to its environment and emphasizes its ecological process, thereby diverting academic attention away from mere offenders.

Psychoanalytic criminology is a method of studying crime and criminal behaviour that draws from Freudian psychoanalysis. This school of thought examines personality and the psyche for motive in crime. Other areas of interest are the fear of crime and the act of punishment.

Victimisation is the state or process of being victimised or becoming a victim. The field that studies the process, rates, incidence, effects, and prevalence of victimisation is called victimology.

Radical criminology states that society "functions" in terms of the general interests of the ruling class rather than "society as a whole" and that while the potential for conflict is always present, it is continually neutralised by the power of a ruling class. Radical criminology is related to critical and conflict criminology in its focus on class struggle and its basis in Marxism. Radical criminologists consider crime to be a tool used by the ruling class. Laws are put into place by the elite and are then used to serve their interests at the peril of the lower classes. These laws regulate opposition to the elite and keep them in power.

Victimization refers to a person being made into a victim by someone else and can take on psychological as well as physical forms, both of which are damaging to victims. Forms of victimization include bullying or peer victimization, physical abuse, sexual abuse, verbal abuse, robbery, and assault. Some of these forms of victimization are commonly associated with certain populations, but they can happen to others as well. For example, bullying or peer victimization is most commonly studied in children and adolescents but also takes place between adults. Although anyone may be victimized, particular groups may be more susceptible to certain types of victimization and as a result to the symptoms and consequences that follow. Individuals respond to victimization in a wide variety of ways, so noticeable symptoms of victimization will vary from person to person. These symptoms may take on several different forms, be associated with specific forms of victimization, and be moderated by individual characteristics of the victim and/or experiences after victimization.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Criminology</span> Study of crime and criminal actions/behavior

Criminology is the interdisciplinary study of crime and deviant behaviour. Criminology is a multidisciplinary field in both the behavioural and social sciences, which draws primarily upon the research of sociologists, political scientists, economists, legal sociologists, psychologists, philosophers, psychiatrists, social workers, biologists, social anthropologists, scholars of law and jurisprudence, as well as the processes that define administration of justice and the criminal justice system.

Green criminology is a branch of criminology that involves the study of harms and crimes against the environment broadly conceived, including the study of environmental law and policy, the study of corporate crimes against the environment, and environmental justice from a criminological perspective.

Although fear of crime is a concern for people of all genders, studies consistently find that women around the world tend to have much higher levels of fear of crime than men, despite the fact that in many places, and for most offenses, men's actual victimization rates are higher. Fear of crime is related to a perceived risk of victimization, but is not the same; fear of crime may be generalized instead of referring to specific offenses, and perceived risk may also be considered a demographic factor that contributes to fear of crime. Women tend to have higher levels for both perceived risk and fear of crime.

The feminist pathways perspective is a feminist perspective of criminology which suggests victimization throughout the life course is a key risk factor for women's entry into offending.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Legal cynicism</span> A negative perception of law enforcement

Legal cynicism is a domain of legal socialization defined by a perception that the legal system and law enforcement agents are "illegitimate, unresponsive, and ill equipped to ensure public safety." It is related to police legitimacy, and the two serve as important ways for researchers to study citizens' perceptions of law enforcement.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Public criminology</span> Academic tendency within criminology

Public criminology is an approach to criminology that disseminates criminological research beyond academia to broader audiences, such as criminal justice practitioners and the general public. Public criminology is closely tied with “public sociology”, and draws on a long line of intellectuals engaging in public interventions related to crime and justice. Some forms of public criminology are conducted through methods such as classroom education, academic conferences, public lectures, “news-making criminology”, government hearings, newspapers, radio and television broadcasting and press releases. Advocates of public criminology argue that the energies of criminologists should be directed towards "conducting and disseminating research on crime, law, and deviance in dialogue with affected communities." Public criminologists focus on reshaping the image of the criminal and work with communities to find answers to pressing questions. Proponents of public criminology see it as potentially narrowing "the yawning gap between public perceptions and the best available scientific evidence on issues of public concern", a problem they see as especially pertinent to matters of crime and punishment.

Secondary victimisation refers to further victim-blaming from criminal justice authorities following a report of an original victimisation.

References

  1. ↑ Hale, C. (1996). Fear of crime: A review of the literature. International Review of Victimology, 4, 79-150.
  2. 1 2 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. 1 2 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. 1 2 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. 1 2 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.
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  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. 1 2 Girling, E., Loader, I. & Sparks, R. (2000). Crime and Social Control in Middle England: Questions of Order in an English Town. London: Routledge.
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  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.
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  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. 1 2 3 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)
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  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. 1 2 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.
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  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. 1 2 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. 1 2 3 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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