Previous research on fear of crime has identified, among women and other sub-groups of the population, high fear levels which could not be adequately explained by measures of exposure to risk. Several authors have argued, therefore, that vulnerability may be the key variable behind the observed distribution of fear of crime. In this paper, three dimensions of vulnerability (exposure to risk, seriousness of consequences, loss of control) are identified and integrated into an analytical framework which also takes into account physical, social, and situational factors of vulnerability. A selective international review of research reveals considerable support for the suggested model.

Over many years, fear of crime was seen as a function of media exposure, or as a consequence of neighbourhood characteristics and-direct or indirect-exposure to crime. Drawing on the work by Skogan and Maxfield (1981), who first introduced vulnerability as a theoretical concept in this context, as well as on research on fear in different (e.g. military) contexts, the first author presented a theoretical model focusing on vulnerability as a key concept in the genesis of fear of crime (Killias 1990(Killias , 1991. This model distinguishes between, on one hand, personal, social and situational aspects of vulnerability, such as gender or age, living in certain areas, and neighbourhood characteristics (Vrij and Winkel 1991), and, on the other hand, several dimensions of threats, i.e. the probability of crime, the seriousness of feared consequences ('how bad will it be') and the feeling of having no control (Bandura 1986;Goffman 1973) over the likelihood of (criminal) events, nor their outcome (seriousness). This model uses nine cells of different combinations between the several dimensions of vulnerability and fear of crime. Since it has been able to integrate much research data on fear of crime in the streets, it has been discussed and somewhat enlarged in theoretical (Hale 1996;Alimam 1993;Schwarzenegger 1991), as well as in empirical research. Of particular interest in this context are:-the British Crime Survey of 1994 and 1998, where physical size, health condition and confidence in self-defence abilities were found to be correlated with worries about violent crime (Hough 1995(Hough , 1996; Mirrlees-Black and Allen 1998); almost identical 437 * School of Forensic Science and Criminology, University of Lausanne, Switzerland. The authors would like to thank Corinne Brignoli, student of forensic science at University of Lausanne, for help with updating this paper's documentation. They also appreciate the valuable suggestions by two anonymous reviewers who encouraged them to amplify certain methodological aspects.

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This article reports on the first results of the Second International Self-Report Delinquency Study (ISRD-2), a large international collaborative study of delinquency and victimization of 12—15-year-old students. The analysis is based on a subsample of the data set: 43,968 respondents from 63 cities and 31 countries. The prevalence rates of the major categories of delinquency, both for individual countries as well as for 6 country clusters, are presented as well as data for victimization experiences (theft and robbery/extortion). Using different measures, significant differences in level and type of offending are found between country clusters, with the Western European and Anglo-Saxon countries generally (but not always) scoring highest, followed by Northern Europe, Latin American and Mediterranean countries, with post-socialist countries at the bottom. The results for victimization experiences do not follow this pattern. The second part of the article compares ISRD-2 offending and victimization rates with two other main sources of internationally available crime-related statistics: International Crime Victim Survey (ICVS) data and European Sourcebook (i.e. police-based) data. The analyses show a moderate level of support for a convergence of different measures. The article concludes with implications and suggestions for further research.