NCJ Number
214813
Journal
International Review of Victimology Volume: 12 Issue: 3 Dated: 2005 Pages: 293-311
Date Published
2005
Length
19 pages
Annotation
This study examined the prediction of local crime rates based on the 2000 British Crime Survey's measures of fear of crime and of disorder, with attention to prediction for personal crime, total household crime, burglary, and vehicle crime.
Abstract
Fear of crime, perceived disorders, total household crime incidence, and vehicle crime prevalence had the best fit to area characteristics. The findings indicate it is possible to predict the types of areas most at risk for crime, especially total crime and frequent crime types. Predictions of fear of crime suggest interventions designed to counter the factors that tend to breed such fear. Poverty and single-adult non-pensioner household (respective measures of socioeconomic status and residential mobility) significantly affected local crime rates for all crime types examined. Ethnic heterogeneity and the proportion of the population ages 16-24 years old were important predictors of local crime rates for property crimes. Local levels of fear of crime and perceived disorder were both influenced by ethnic heterogeneity and poverty, and the percentage of those ages 16-24 was significantly related to perceptions of disorder. Measures of crime rates consisted of 2000 data on victimization that involved personal crimes, total household crime, vehicle-related theft, and burglary. Fear of crime and perceptions of disorder were determined from respondents' answers to questions on "worry about crime" and "problems in your area." Fear of being victimized by particular types of crimes was measured by questions that targeted residential burglary, robbery, rape, physically attacked by a stranger, a racially based physical attack, and verbal harassment. 3 tables, 5 figures, 16 notes, and 35 references