The Effect of Fear of Sexual Victimization on Adolescent Fear of Crime

Abstract

The author examines the eþect of fear of sexual victimization on fear of crime among adolescents. Criminologists have indicated that gender is one of the strongest predictors of fear of crime : Women are more fearful than men. Some authors (Warr 1984, and Ferraro 1995, among others) have suggested that this diþerential fear among women can mostly be attributed to their inordinate fear of sexual victimization. This relationship, however, has only been examined among adults. Using a sample of 725 adolescents, the eþect of fear of sexual victimization and other demographic and contextual variables on fear of criminal victimization is examined. Results indicate that fear of sexual victimization is the best predictor of fear of nonsexual victimization, whereas the eþects of other variables are contingent on race and gender. The reasons for this ünding, as well as the implications for social policies, are discussed.Other than domestic assault, sexual assault is the only crime by which women are more likely to be victimized than men (Ringel 1997). Thus, it would make intuitive sense that women would be more fearful of sexual assault than their male counterparts. Until recently, however, one of the most well-accepted ündings in the literature examining fear of criminal victimization was that females are more fearful of victimization by all crimes

School disorder, victimization, and general v. place-specific student avoidance

“…Other studies have presented contrary findings showing a non-significant relationship between victimization and fear (e.g., Baumer, 1985;May, 2001aMay, , 2001bMcGarrell, Giacomazzi, & Thurman, 1997). A handful of studies suggest that type of victimization and type of fear considered (e.g., personal vs. property crime) make a difference in the strength of the correlation (Denkers & Winkel, 1998;Dull & Wint, 1997;Smith & Hill, 1991).…”

Fear of crime and criminal victimization: Gender-based contrasts

“…In this way, fear of sexual victimization becomes "perceptually contemporaneous" with the fear of other forms of victimization (Warr, 1984). Recent research had provided empirical validation of the shadow hypothesis (Ferraro, 1995(Ferraro, , 1996Fisher & Sloan, 2003;May, 2001).…”

“…Women report rates of crime-related fear that are nearly twice that of men (Haynie, 1998), but men and women are not homogeneous in their levels of crime-related fears (Newburn & Stanko, 1994); there are fearful men and fearless women (Goodey, 1997;Warr, 1985). Unfortunately, with few exceptions (LaGrange & Ferraro, 1989;Lane & Meeker, 2003;May, 2001) research had focused on explaining differences between, rather than within the genders (Gilchrist et al, 1998). 1 This study sought to contribute to the understanding of the gender differences in crime-related fear by conducting separate analyses for male and female respondents.…”

“…Prior multivariate analyses contrasting fear and risk among men and women had relied on focused samples and/or contexts. May (2001) and May and Dunaway (2000) utilized an adolescent sample; the latter study focused on victimization while at school. Lane (2002) and Lane and Meeker (2003) restricted their analyses to gang crimes.…”

Gender Differences in U.S. College Students’ Fear for Others

“…One reason women selfreport personal fear of crime more than men is because personal fear of sexual assault has a "shadow" effectwomen's fear of rape overshadows their fear of all other crime (e.g., Ferraro 1996;Fisher and Sloan 2003;May 2001;Wilcox et al 2006). Scholars argue women's fear of crime, including the shadow effect, is often based on the socialization of women (Hollander 2001;Scott 2003).…”