What Causes Fear of Crime?

Abstract

An understanding of the factors associated with fear of crime is a fundamental component of fear-reduction strategies. To effectively combat fear of crime, planners and policy makers need this knowledge to ascertain why people feel afraid. There are four streams of theoretical research that propose factors linked with fear of crime. These can be grouped as the ‘criminal opportunity and risk of victimization’ theories, the ‘demographic’ theories, ‘social’ theories and ‘environmental’ theories. The criminal opportunity and risk of victimization theories focus on crime as the chief explanatory variable in fear of crime. The demographic theories focus on different socio-demographic groups as the primary unit of analysis in examining factors associated with fear of crime (Innes, 2004). The social and environmental theories look to cues in the external environment as factors that trigger fear of crime. After reviewing different theoretical approaches to explain fear of crime, the chapter concludes emphasizing that studies should use survey questions that minimize the likelihood of producing results that could represent fear of crime as something other than ‘fear’ of ‘crime’. There is clear evidence that environmental cues, such as signs of disorder and other stimuli in threatening environments, can trigger fear of crime. Despite the fact that several studies have investigated the link between fear of crime and environmental cues, it appears there is room for more research into environmental theories and the associated behavioural responses that individuals adopt in relation to perceptions of risk.