Emphasizing Fear of Crime in Models of Neighborhood Social Disorganization

Abstract

The place of fear of crime in traditional models of neighborhood social disorganization is rather ambiguous. This paper discusses the literatures on social disorganization theory and fear of crime, arguing for a model of social disorganization that explicitly incorporates fear of crime rather than ignoring it, assuming it, or using proxies for it. After providing an overview of the links between the social disorganization and fear of crime literatures, this paper elaborates on Robert Bursik's (1988) framework to show how a dynamic model of social disorganization may incorporate fear of crime. Specifically, this paper more closely examines the idea that fear of crime is the point of departure for a reciprocal effect feedback loop in social disorganization theory. This paper also claims that a dynamic model of social disorganization can include the concept of fear of crime as a mediator between community-level structures and the intervening social control variables that causally precede crime. Other criminological approaches to fear of crime are also explored and the implications for future research are discussed.