Fear of Crime and Feelings of Unsafety in European Countries: Macro and Micro Explanations in Cross-National Perspective

Visser, Mark; Scholte, Marijn; Scheepers, P.L.H.

doi:10.1111/tsq.12020

Cited by 76 publications

(80 citation statements)

References 74 publications

(147 reference statements)

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“…Next, fear of crime is measured as a mean of two questions focusing on fear of burglary and violent crime (cf. Visser, Scholte, & Scheepers, 2013) while larger batteries of questions measuring fear of different types of offences would be more appropriate (see LaGrange & Ferraro, 1989). Similarly, and in accordance with the fear of crime measures, victimization indicator only takes into account robbery, burglary and assault.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Life satisfaction and happiness: discussing the impact of fear of crime and victimization

Krulichová¹

2018

Auc Philosophica Et Historica

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Subjective well-being is usually studied with respect to marital and occupational status, income or subjective health. Conversely, research examining the relationship between this phenomenon and crime related factors is still relatively limited. This study therefore aims to extent the current knowledge in this area. Using data from the fifth wave of the European Social Survey for the Czech Republic, in which 2386 respondents participated, we conduct a hierarchical regression analysis to find out to what extent victimization experience and fear of crime influence life satisfaction and happiness of Czechs. The results of the analysis reveal a direct relationship between fear of crime and subjective well-being. On the contrary, victimization affects life satisfaction and happiness indirectly via the fear of crime. Surprisingly, a decrease in life satisfaction is greater for fearful men than fearful women, whereas there are no gender differences regarding the fear of crime -happiness link.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Life satisfaction and happiness: discussing the impact of fear of crime and victimization

Krulichová¹

2018

Auc Philosophica Et Historica

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“…On the one hand, gender and age have been shown to be consistent predictors of both risk perception (Jackson, ) and worry about crime (Brunton‐Smith & Sturgis, ). On the other hand, country of residence has been shown to be a consistent predictor of perceived safety of the streets after dark in a number of cross‐national studies (Hummelsheim, Hirtenlehner, Jackson, & Oberwittler, ; Semyonov, Gorodzeisky, & Glikman, ; Visser, Scholte, & Scheepers, ) and may also predict perceived risk. It is important to adjust for these three factors, because controlling for these covariates reduces the possibility that the associations are inflated because they are all influenced by gender, age, and country of residence…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Cognitive closure and risk sensitivity in the fear of crime

Jackson

2013

Legal Criminol Psychol

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Purpose This study was designed to answer two questions. First, does the risk sensitivity model of worry about crime replicate in three European countries? Second, can the model be extended to include need for cognitive closure? Method A national probability survey in Italy, Bulgaria, and Lithuania measured worry about criminal victimization, risk perception, and need for cognitive closure. Additive and interactive relationships between latent constructs were tested using latent moderated structural equation modelling. Results First, perceived likelihood, control, and consequence were statistically significant additive predictors of worry about crime. Second, the association between subjective probability judgements and worry about crime was stronger among people who associated the uncertain event with serious personal consequences and among people who had a high need for cognitive closure. Third, need for cognitive closure was associated with greater perceived consequences of victimization, but not with different perceptions of the likelihood and controllability of personal victimization. Conclusions This study provides empirical support for an extended risk sensitivity model in three European countries. Findings suggest that risk perception involves multiple – and interacting – dimensions that constitute sensitivity to risk, as well as individual differences in knowledge construction, information judgement, and processing. Future work should address (1) whether probability judgements shift psychological distance to uncertain future outcomes, and (2) whether the effect of psychological distance on worry about crime is greater among people who construe the outcome to be severe in consequence and who desire definite knowledge and dislike uncertainty in their lives.

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“…Some of the macro-level studies suggest that the size of the migrant population in a country is related to heightened fear of crime (for example, Ceobanu, 2010; Semyonov et al, 2012), yet again other studies did not find this link at all (Visser et al, 2013). …”

Section: Alternative Macro-level Explanationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Income inequality and fear of crime across the European region

Vauclair

Bratanova

2016

European Journal of Criminology

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This paper aims to take a holistic approach to studying fear of crime by testing predictors at multiple levels of analyses. Data from the European Social Survey (N = 56,752 from 29 countries) were used to test and extend the Income Inequality and Sense of Vulnerability Hypotheses. The findings confirm that (1) individuals in societies with greater income inequalities are more fearful of crime, and (2) older or disabled people as well as women report greater fear of crime. Contrary to the hypotheses, ethnic majority and not ethnic minority members report greater fear of crime, if they reside in high income inequality countries. It is further demonstrated that fear of crime explains the inverse association between income inequality and subjective well-being in this particular subsample.

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Fear of Crime and Feelings of Unsafety in European Countries: Macro and Micro Explanations in Cross-National Perspective

Cited by 76 publications

References 74 publications

Life satisfaction and happiness: discussing the impact of fear of crime and victimization

Life satisfaction and happiness: discussing the impact of fear of crime and victimization

Cognitive closure and risk sensitivity in the fear of crime

Income inequality and fear of crime across the European region

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