Fear of Crime

Psychology of Crime

The Figgie Report (1980)

1.     Concrete fear (fear of being a victim of a specific crime),

2.     Formless fear (a general feeling of being unsafe).

Percentage of people with high levels of fear (Figgie Report 1980)

0

510

15

20

2530

35

4045

50

Men Women

Concrete FearFormless Fear

Fear of violence

Men (%) Women (%)

Afraid to go out alone at night

11 57

Afraid of being mugged

39 56

Fear of violence

Men (%) Women (%)

Afraid of being attacked in their own homes

27 55

Afraid of using public transport at night

11 35

Fear of violence

Men (%) Women (%)

Afraid of some other form of attack

21 27

Bottoms et al (1981) Looking at how people view crime, there is evidence of

contradictory beliefs. Many people see the crime rates as rising generally and

overstate the risks, but when asked about crime in their area, they understate the problem even in areas of high crime rates.

Bottoms et al (1981) focused on the so-called ‘red light area' of Sheffield, which has a very high crime rate for the city.

Some 54% of the residents of this area who were interviewed felt that the crime rate was the same as the average for the city.

more worried about assaults than road accidents.

Similarly there are contradictions in what people worry about. British Crime Surveys show that respondents are more worried about assaults than road accidents.

Yet there are over 50 times more deaths and serious injuries from road accidents than from assaults.

people are still ‘very worried' Comparing the results of the 1994 British Crime Survey

with earlier surveys shows that people are still ‘very worried' about becoming a victim.

In fact, this is a greater worry than losing their jobs, illness in the family or being injured in a road accident.

If asked, most members of the public might well claim to have a fairly accurate picture of the current crime rate in their area.

However, one might wish to question whether these estimates are likely to be accurate.

fear of crime does not necessarily correlate with the actual risk.

There is certainly evidence to suggest that, in many cases, fear of crime does not necessarily correlate with the actual risk.

For example, one survey in Japan found that over 50 per cent of residents expressed a fear of being the victim of burglary, despite the fact that the likelihood of them actually becoming a victim was less than one per cent (Ito, 1993).

fear of being a burglary victim

The fear of being a burglary victim has not changed, though the burglary rate has doubled since1984.

Although there is some evidence that seasonal differences in fear of crime do correspond with seasonal levels of actual crime (Semmens et al 2002).

violent crime outside of the home Although violent crime outside of the home only accounts for

6% of all offences, this is the area, which occupies most people in determining their attitude to crime generally and their behaviour.

The 1996 British Crime Survey revealed that one in 10 women and one in 20 men said they never went out after dark and one-third of the women who stayed in cited fear of crime as the reason.

The same survey reported a 242% increase in domestic violence since 1981.

 

violent crime outside of the home

So even though there is little risk of violent crime outside of the home compared with domestic violence, people are more worried about violence outside of the home?

psychological effects

McCabe and Raine (1997) found that fear of crime produced the same psychological effects as being a victim, though to a lower degree.

Those fearful of crime report stress, depression and sleeping difficulties.

Individual differences The 2000 British Crime Survey revealed that women were

more worried than men about violent crime, with 25% of female respondents saying they were ‘very worried’ about being mugged or physically attacked by a stranger, and almost 3 in 10 of them ‘very worried’ about being raped.

Black and Asian respondents were also far more worried about all types of crime than white respondents, with 41% of Asian and 37% of black respondents claiming they were ‘very worried’ about their home being burgled, compared to 18% of white respondents (Kershaw et al., 2000).

Age Ironically, those who are the least likely to become

the victims of crime tend to be the most fearful. Thus, the elderly tend to be very fearful of ‘street

crime’ such as robbery and assault and yet are the least likely victims of such crimes, while those who are most likely to be the victims of this type of attack, men aged 16—24 years, do not appear to be excessively worried.

Age The 1998 BCS found that although men aged 16—24

made up only five per cent of the sample, they experienced 25 per cent of the total amount of reported violence.

Thus, twenty per cent (or one in five) of those in this age group reported being a victim of violence on at least one occasion over the previous year.

By comparison, for women over 75, the reported level of victimisation was 0.2 per cent or one in 500.

Age

Goodey (1997) has argued that young men’s apparent fearlessness is crucially tied to the constraints of masculinity, which prevent them admitting their own vulnerability.

Media Public perceptions of crime are often shaped by

the media, with coverage of crime tending to focus on exceptional events such as sex and violence, which inevitably gives a skewed impression of levels of risk (Hewitt, 1998).

Vrij and Parker (1997) found that sensationalist coverage of crime (tabloids) produced higher levels of fear than did non-sensationalist coverage (broadsheets).

Cultural differences

Ito (1993) cites some studies, which show that in Japan the fear of victimisation actually declines with increasing age.

Further, it is reported that, unlike in many Western cultures (e.g Semmens et al 2002), the level of fear is much more in line with the actual risk of victimisation.

Media

As Mirrlees-Black et al. (1996) note: The BCS has always indicated that a majority feel that

crime has increased in their area when asked to consider ‘the last two years’. They are more likely to be making a value judgement than one based on firm facts and it would not be surprising if they had got used to the dominant media message of ‘ever rising crime’. (1996: 49).

Media Despite the fact that recorded crime levels between 1994

and 1996 had fallen, 55 per cent of those surveyed in the 1996 BCS thought that crime in their area had increased ‘a little’ or ‘a lot’ during this time.

Only ten per cent thought that it had fallen during this period.

This may point to actual differences between local and national trends, or, perhaps more likely, be a result of biased media reporting.

Media

Among these, the majority thought that the increase had been a large one.

Only four per cent correctly reported that the crime rate had actually fallen (Mirrlees-Black et al., 1996).

Media It is not easy to calm crime fears once an expectation or

anxiety has been built up (Ainsworth, 1995a: ch. 11). It would be a brave police officer who went on television

and announced that ‘as a result of the recent drop in crime figures I am here to tell you that it is now safe to walk the streets at night’.

Far more likely is the standard police advice following a crime that ‘members of the public should take extra care until this dangerous villain is apprehended’.

Media

If the media merely reported crime trends accurately and objectively, the public’s assessment of their vulnerability might be more accurate.

However, the media tend not to highlight trends or levels of risk, but rather to focus on the exceptional, the bizarre and the horrific (Sparks, 1992; Howitt, 1998).

Media

Cumberbatch (1989) estimated that although the majority of people living in low crime areas will not become victims of crime, in any one year each will be exposed to some 7,000 crimes via the media.

Media Gunter (1987) notes that those who fear crime might be

encouraged to avoid potential victimisation by staying at home and locking them selves in.

However, in doing so, they are likely to watch more television which shows more crime stories.

The fear of crime is thus reinforced and the likelihood of their venturing out in future is reduced still further.

Media It should also be borne in mind that, despite what

the media tell us, the home is not the safe haven which might be presumed.

In most years, far more killings occur within the home than in dark, deserted streets.

One is far more likely to fall victim to an assault at the hands of a relative, partner or close friend than at the hands of a complete stranger.

Media

If one looks at the figures for rape it is perhaps surprising to learn that, according to official figures, only about one-third of such crimes are committed by men who did not already know their victim.

Further, almost 40 per cent of such attacks were carried out by men described by their victims as ‘intimate friends’ (Barclay, 1993).

Media

Gerbner and Cross (1976) found that heavy television viewers were more likely to overestimate the chances of encountering violence, and were less trusting of people generally, the stereotypical image of criminals emphasized by television is the evil stranger, but many women will suffer victimization at the hands of someone they know (Madriz, 1997).

Media Howitt notes that although Gerbner’s research

(Gerbner, et al., 1977, 1980) did find some association between heavy viewing and fear of victimisation, the size of the effect was very small.

After controlling for relevant variables, Howitt suggests that less than half of one per cent of the variance in people’s tendency to see the world as mean and violent’ was accounted for by their viewing habits.

Media

It would, therefore, appear that the so-called cultivation hypothesis is not as clear-cut an explanation for crime fear as might have been supposed.

One obvious consideration is whether those who watch more television overall do actually watch more crime programmes.

Media Howitt draws attention to a further important intervening

variable, i.e. locus of control. It has been found that the locus of control dimension is a

crucial intervening variable between the viewing of crime programmes on television and subsequent fear of crime.

If this personality variable is controlled for statistically, then the correlation identified by Gerbner et al disappears.

The End