NCJ Number
138082
Journal
Applied Psychology: An International Review Volume: 41 Issue: 1 Dated: (1992) Pages: 65-75
Date Published
1992
Length
11 pages
Annotation
This paper profiles principal trends that have sustained American and European research on the fear of crime.
Abstract
This research review identifies three primary orientations that characterize the research. In the first trend, interest has focused on the effects of environmental factors on the fear of crime. The second trend emphasizes the differences between subjects and assessed the effects of variables that are capable of explaining different individual reactions to fear. In the third trend, emphasis is on the mechanisms that promote the emergence and growth of the fear of crime. These various research orientations are not present at the same level in each nation, and they are often linked to a dominant scientific context. The environmental trend is the oldest. It originated in the United States and is today most widely represented in countries where a strong tradition of experimental research exists, as in the United Kingdom or The Netherlands. Sociological research is increasing in importance in the United States, where an increasing number of sophisticated approaches attempt to assess the effect of different variables capable of explaining different individual reactions to fear. The comprehensive trend, the result of a phenomenological tradition, is typical in France. 65 references