NCJ Number
185087
Journal
Crime & Delinquency Volume: 46 Issue: 4 Dated: October 2000 Pages: 497-521
Date Published
October 2000
Length
25 pages
Annotation
This article examines fear of crime and gangs in Orange County, CA.
Abstract
Fear and gangs were two of the most important factors driving crime policy in the 1990s. Policymakers and the media blamed gangs for much of the violence occurring across the nation and for public fear. The article examines fear of crime and gangs in Orange County, CA, as measured by a randomized survey of 1,223 respondents conducted in 1995 by a local newspaper. The factors predicting fear of crime and fear of gangs were different. In addition, concern about subcultural diversity was a strong predictor of both types of fear. This finding supports those who argue that racial and cultural misunderstandings are the key factors in predicting fear of crime. People's sense of danger is related to their fears of strangers; racial and ethnic differences accentuate those fears because of people's inability to understand the behaviors of individuals who belong to different cultural groups. The effect of concern about diversity on fear of gangs, in particular, is likely because the majority of gangs in the survey area were Latino barrio gangs and the majority of survey respondents were white. Tables, notes, figure, references