Abstract
How do voters respond to the politicisation of law-and-order issues? This article analyses this question by studying to what extent citizens in Western Europe are more fearful of crime when political parties emphasise law-and-order issues. Building on nine waves of the European social survey in 14 Western European countries, the study shows that issue politicisation is associated with higher individual fear of crime in general, and particularly for individuals who feel less economically secure. This effect of issue politicisation is substantiated with German panel data using fixed effects models, showing that the same individuals are more fearful of crime than usual when experiencing more politicisation of crime than usual and especially so when feeling economically insecure. The findings contribute not only to the study of fear of crime and penal politics, but also to the general understanding of how politics affects individual attitudes.
Published Version
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