NCJ Number
82427
Date Published
1977
Length
18 pages
Annotation
Using data from surveys in Kansas City and Cincinnati, an hypothesized relationship between community solidarity and residents' fear of crime is examined.
Abstract
It was hypothesized that fear of crime and types of reactions to crime are functions of area. Such a finding would be consistent with the more narrow hypothesis that community cohesiveness affects reactions to crime. Data on fear of crime were gathered from neighborhoods with differing characteristics in the two cities surveyed. The findings confirm that reactions to crime are associated with area of residence. In Cincinnati, it was found that area-related variables derived from individual scores produced stronger measures of association than did the individual measures alone. In Kansas City, it was found that area as a nominal variable was, aside from victimization, the strongest predictor of fear. The effect of other variables, such as race and age, which appear important when individually correlated with fear, was insignificant when area of residence was introduced into the equation. The findings do not show, however, that community solidarity is the area characteristic related to the level of fear of crime; for example, area effects on fear could be related to income, average age, or racial composition. The next step in the analysis is to include a larger number of areas, so as to sort out the factors that contribute to the area effect. Appended are the survey items used to construct variables and tabular data. (Author summary modified)