Crime, fear and subjective well-being: How victimization and street crime affect fear and life satisfaction

Abstract

The paper assesses the consequences of victimization experience and the crime rate on fear of crime and life satisfaction. It extends the classical fear of crime model by incorporating media use in the link between the crime rate and fear of crime. Based on a nationwide German survey conducted in 2010 it is shown that fear of crime and victimization experiences lower respondents' life satisfaction. The county crime rate has no significant impact. However, the local crime rate increases fear of crime. This relationship is mediated by the consumption of local newspapers. Readers of such newspapers are more affected by the crime rate, because they have more information on crime trends within their county.

Putting a Price Tag on Security: Subjective Well-Being and Willingness-to-Pay for Crime Reduction in Europe

“…Accordingly, perceptions may not correspond to the objective risk but they could rather be influenced by single negative experiences with crime, the consumption of local media and visibility of crime (Hanslmaier, 2013).…”

“…In addition to including these commonly used measures in our analysis, we also include another measure by drawing upon previous studies using information about victimization experiences and fear of crime from the same persons who report life satisfaction, following Medina and Tamayo (2012), Hanslmaier (2013), Davies and Hinks (2010) and Moller (2005).…”

“…Conversely, living in insecure and dangerous surroundings has far-reaching consequences, incurring different costs for the victims of crimes. Depending on its severity, criminal acts can affect victims due to uninsured financial losses, physical pain, emotional suffering, trauma or even death, thus substantially reducing their quality of life (Moller, 2005;Davies and Hinks, 2010;Medina and Tamayo, 2012;Hanslmaier, 2013;Staubli et al, 2014;Mahuteau and Zhu, 2015). Even nonvictimized individuals can suffer from crime in their environment through growing fear, anxiety and psychological distress if they perceive an increased personal risk of victimization.…”

Miedo al Delito, Victimización y Satisfacción con la Vida en México

“…Estos resultados están en la línea de los obtenidos por Hanslmaier (2013), que observó que el hecho de haber sido victimizado y el temor a volver a vivir esta experiencia se relacionaban con una baja satisfacción con la vida. También, en este estudio, se subrayó que el sexo de las víctimas constituía una variable relevante en el estudio, en el sentido de que las mujeres percibían un mayor temor a la victimización que los hombres.…”

“…En este sentido, Powdthavee (2005) observó que las víctimas de delitos informaban de una menor satisfacción con la vida, en comparación con las no-víctimas. Por otra parte, Hanslmaier (2013) mostró que esta disminución es todavía mayor en las mujeres que en los hombres. Esta relación puede atribuirse al hecho de que ser víctima es uno de los estresores no-normativos de mayor impacto, lo que supone una merma significativa de la satisfacción con la vida (Segerstrom & O´Connor, 2012;Staubli, Killias & Frey, 2014;Thomsen, 2013;Turner, Shattuck, Hamby & Finkelhor, 2013).…”