NCJ Number
138898
Date Published
1991
Length
5 pages
Annotation
This English-language summary describing a survey of crime and crime- prevention measures in eight Stockholm (Sweden) suburbs is designed to determine the causes of variation in the incidence and structure of crime in the urban environment and to formulate an action program based on the knowledge gained.
Abstract
Residents were asked about the occurrence of 11 problems in their neighborhoods and whether, in their view, the problem was nonexistent, small, or big. The problems ranged from littering to molestation, disorderly behavior, and fights. The occurrence of problems, crime victimization, and fear of crime was greatest in the suburbs with the largest proportion of socially and economically disadvantaged residents and with the lowest levels of residential stability and social integration. Individual variations in residents' perceptions of the incidence of littering, vandalism, juvenile gangs, drunkenness, people behaving in a disorderly manner, fighting, and other problems could be linked to the suburbs in which a respondent lived. Crime victimization showed less inter- suburban variation than the occurrence of various kinds of problems. An analysis of the connection between fear of crime on the one hand and individual social category, the occurrence of problems in the area, and personal victimization of crime on the other hand showed that these factors taken together could explain 26 percent of individual variation in fear of going out in the evenings in one's own residential area and 15 percent of fear of other residents in the neighborhood. 2 tables