NCJ Number
82422
Date Published
1976
Length
25 pages
Annotation
The validity of certain items in polls intended to measure the fear of crime is examined, and problems in interpreting the effects of reported rates of fear of crime are discussed.
Abstract
While major poll questions are reasonably effective in providing information on citizens' concern about crime and their fear of victimization, there are dimensions to the fear of crime that are rarely tapped by the standard survey items. Notably lacking is any attention to the dynamics through which perceptions of neighborhood problems interact with fear of crime. Neither do poll data permit assessment of how persons deal with the threat of crime. No information is provided on how and when collective and individual solutions to crime problems emerge or how individual decisions and behavior are influenced by the character of the neighborhood. There is sufficient research in this area to suggest that attitudes and fear about crime are poor predictors of individual and collective responses. A promising mode of analysis is the investigation of levels of fear reported in a locale and their relation to residents' behavior. Biderman (1967) found, for example, that residents of high crime neighborhoods are more fearful and alter their behavior more to deal with crime than do residents of neighborhoods with less crime. Further, an extensive longitudinal study of fear of crime and behavioral reaction in 11 neighborhoods in 3 cities lends support to the conclusion that where a person lives and the patterns of fear and behavior of other residents provide a better explanation of that person's behavior than the attitudes voiced by that person in response to traditional poll items intended to measure fear of crime. Twenty-four references are listed. (Author summary modified)