This article examines social psychological underpinnings of fear of rape among college women. We analyze data from a survey of 1,905 female undergraduates to test the influence of 5 subjective perceptions about vulnerability and harm: unique invulnerability, gender risk, defensibility, anticipatory shame, and attribution of injury. We include 3 sources of crime exposure in our models: past sexual victimization, past noncontact violent victimization, and structural risk measured by age, parent's income, and race. Separate measures of fear of stranger and acquaintance rape are modeled, including variables tapping current versus anticipatory fear, fear on campus versus everywhere, and fear anytime versus at night. The data show that fear of rape among college women appears more grounded in constructed perceptions of harm and danger than in past violent experiences.

Perceptions of school safety, fear of crime among students, and school avoidance have received increasing research attention in recent decades. Feeling unsafe at school impacts mental health, absenteeism, and academic success. We focus on a behavioral indicator of heightened concern about safety among high school students. Using 2011 National Youth Risk Behavior Survey data, we examine how crime victimization, bullying, drug use, weapon carrying, defensibility, media exposure, social integration, and school disorder affect school avoidance. Complementary log-log regression results indicate differences in predictors across sex, race/ethnicity, and class year. Implications for policy and future research on school avoidance are discussed.

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In the framework of a constructionist approach, a life-course point of view, and traditional concepts borrowed from identity theory, the authors report on a study of fifty-six San Francisco bisexuals. The data show that by midlife, changing life commitments among the participants were associated with a decrease in sexual involvement, a move toward sexual activity with just one sex, a decrease in contact with the bisexual subculture, and a decrease in the salience of a bisexual identity. Given these changes, the data reveal the opposite of what might be expected—an increase rather than a decrease in the certainty about and stability of the bisexual identity. The authors show that this was due to the continuation of dual attractions that were positively regarded even as there was a move away from a bisexual lifestyle. In explaining these findings, they discuss the interplay between sexual communities, relationships, selves, and sexuality.

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