NCJ Number
89373
Journal
Criminologie Volume: 36 Issue: 1 Dated: special issue La peur du crime (1982) Pages: 85-99
Date Published
1983
Length
15 pages
Annotation
Respondents were asked to identify the dangerous areas within their neighborhood, the Cote-des-Neiges quarter of Montreal, thus creating a spatial image or mental map of their fear of crime and the city's perceived loci of dangerousness.
Abstract
Cote-de-Neiges was chosen because of its heterogeneous population, its well-defined borders, and the fact that it encompasses a single police district. The study instrument comprised a map of the quarter, eight questions on respondents' personal data (sex, age, residence, and victimization experience), and a request to identify locations of the map considered to be high-risk areas for street crimes. Of 401 respondents addressed, 118 returned the questionnaires: 60 men and 58 women, the majority of whom had lived in the quarter at least 2 years. Of these, 76 marked the map for places of dangerousness. Analysis of their collective perception of dangerous areas revealed that all sectors of the neighborhood were perceived as dangerous by some respondent, but four particular sectors were identified more frequently than others. Official police crime rates for these zones of fear could not be verified because police reporting is done according to different geographic and crime type categories. Interviewed police officers contended that they do not patrol any sector more intensively because of high crime risk and that a high concentration of street crime does not occur in any particular sector. However, officers willingly identified areas where citizens may have reason to fear going -- the very areas singled out by previous respondents and characterized by high density, many immigrants and children, much street activity, and dilapidated housing. The map and 17 references are given.