NCJ Number
138641
Date Published
1980
Length
435 pages
Annotation
This volume reports on a study that examined how city dwellers in Chicago, Philadelphia, and San Francisco cope with the problems of crime and the fear of crime.
Abstract
In each city, thousands of people were interviewed about their assessments of crime and what they had done about it. Field observers were stationed in selected neighborhoods in each city. They attended meetings, interviewed community leaders and local officials, and observed what occurred in the community. Coders read and systematically recorded crime news in the daily newspapers. Study findings indicate that four factors are significant correlates of fear of crime: victimization, vulnerability, vicarious experience, and neighborhood conditions. Reported and observed reactions to crime included the taking of personal precautions, such as walking with others, avoiding dangerous places, staying home, and driving rather than walking after dark. Unlike personal precautions, efforts by households to reduce their risk of loss from property crime were not related directly to the threat of victimization. Such measures tended to reflect economic stakes and social ties. Citizen involvement in community organizations engaged in some kind of anticrime activity was widespread. Flight to the suburbs from the cities was not so much a reaction to crime as to changes in income and household composition. People rated crime as an important consideration when they decided where to move. 180 references and extensive tables