NCJ Number
181212
Journal
British Journal of Criminology Volume: 38 Issue: 2 Dated: Spring 1998 Pages: 283-298
Date Published
1998
Length
16 pages
Annotation
Qualitative interviews with 32 men and 32 women in Glasgow, Scotland, gathered information on their fear of crime and risk of victimization; the research examined the media stereotype that all women restrict their lives due to the perceived victimization risk and that men are less fearful and even off-hand about the possibility of victimization.
Abstract
Professional empirically generated survey data about the fear of crime persistently indicate relatively small but statistically significant differences between fear rates expressed by men and women. Such differences are contrasted with objective risk ratios for crime victimization and are regularly magnified by amateur surveys. The participants were equally distributed among four different housing areas: inner-city poor, inner-city affluent, outlying affluent, and outlying poor. They provided information about the offenses they feared, their experiences, the area in which they lived, and their general worries or fears. Men and women referred to similar factors when talking about worry and crime. Great differences existed between men with low fear and men with high fear and between women with low fear and women with high fear. More similarities than differences appeared to exist among men and women with high fear and men and women with low fear. The fearful appeared to have gathered more direct or indirect knowledge of victimization, to think they had a higher risk of being victimized, and to regard themselves as more vulnerable than the fearless. They also seemed to think that their security measures were poor and to worry about minor offenses through linking them with more serious offenses. Findings indicated that men and women cannot be considered independent, homogeneous groups and that fear of crime does not relate solely to women. 33 references (Author abstract modified)