The Relationship of Community Characteristics to Actual and Perceived Crime in Urban Neighborhoods

Abstract

This paper examined the relationship between “actual crime” and “fear of crime” based on police archival crime data and door-to-door survey on 44 face blocks in Lansing, Michigan USA. Statistical analysis showed that the residents' perception of crime is somewhat reflection of the actual crime rate. However, our main interest is on the variance of perceived crime which are not explained by the “actual crime”. The variance can be mainly explained by sense of community and income. Other variables such as demographics (except income), physical layout, land-use were not significant predictors of the residual. Rich, neighboring communities have less fear of crime than one might expect from the block's real crime rate. Poor and disintegrated urban neighborhoods are more likely to suffer from unwarranted fear of crime. Practical implications are as follows. First, the perceptions of crime need to be taken seriously by both public servants and NGO activists. Second, residents should be aware of their right to be informed on actual crime rates in their neighborhoods from comparative point of view. Deprivation of information on the part of residents may negatively affect the reflexive social meaning attached to their own neighborhoods. Third, building up sense of community is the appropriate measure for “self-barricading neighborhoods out of exaggerated fear of crime.” Sense of community may be related to the birth of “preventive community.”