Why People Take Precautions Against Crime: A Review of the Literature on Individual and Collective Responses to Crime (From Taking Care: Understanding and Encouraging Self-Protective Behavior, P 231-253, 1987, Neil D Weinstein, ed.)

• NCJ Number: 107321
• Author(s): S W Greenberg
• Date Published: 1987
• Length: 23 pages
• Grant Number(s): 81-IJ-CX-0080
• Sponsoring Agency: US Dept of Justice; US Dept of Justice NIJ Pub
• Sale Source: Cambridge University Press
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America

Annotation

In focusing on citizen behavioral reponses to crime, this paper addresses definitions of behavioral responses to crime, fear and other risk-related factors as motivating forces in responding to crime, the relation between responses to crime and beliefs about the efficacy of different sources of help, community differences in crime responses, and initiation versus maintenance of crime responses.

Abstract

Two major conclusions can be drawn from research on behavioral responses to crime. First, types of behavioral response tend to occur independently of one another. Since each type of response is a function of a different set of factors, strategies to encourage one type of response may be ineffective in promoting others; e.g., producing fear of crime may produce avoidance behavior but may diminish collective crime prevention activities. Second, approaches to crime prevention must be tailored to the community. Generally, collective crime prevention approaches are more difficult to establish in lower income, heterogeneous neighborhoods, where residents are more likely to fear and mistrust one another and there is a lower rate of participation in formal organizations. Organized approaches to crime prevention must reflect the social structure of the targeted neighborhoods. 73 references.