Fear of Crime - An Empirical Clarification of a Major Problem

• NCJ Number: 89249
• Author(s): T L Baumer; D P Rosenbaum
• Date Published: 1982
• Length: 57 pages
• Grant Number(s): 79-NI-AX-0124
• Sponsoring Agency: US Dept of Justice; US Dept of Justice NIJ Pub
• Sale Source: National Institute of Justice/; NCJRS Photocopy Services
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America

Annotation

Fear of crime is a concept which contains several dimensions: knowledge or beliefs about the amount of crime in the respondent's immediate environment, an evaluation of the threat of victimization, and behavioral adaptations to avoid street crime.

Abstract

This multidimensional view of fear of crime is easily integrated into Lazarus's stress theory, according to which stressful situations entail the presence of a stimulus event, an assessment of the stimulus as threatening, and emotional and behavioral reactions designed to cope with the subjectively defined danger. According to this perspective, crime is a potential environmental stressor. Its significance is assessed in terms of the amount of the threat. The individual reactions represent strategies to cope with or reduce the threat. Scales using these concepts were developed through a pilot study which used a field survey to test the indices' reliability and validity. The results of this study formed the basis of the refinement of five scales into three scales. This multidimensional approach should replace the unidimensional approach to the measurement of fear of crime. Data tables, footnotes, and 37 references are included.