Do Neighbourhoods Generate Fear of Crime?

Abstract

For a long time, criminologists have contended that neighborhoods are important determinants of how individuals perceive their risk of criminal victimization. Yet, despite the theoretical importance and policy relevance of these claims, the empirical evidence base is surprisingly thin and inconsistent. The current study's large sample size, analytical approach, and the independence of the empirical measures enabled researchers to overcome some of the limitations that have hampered much previous research into this question. The study found that neighborhood structural characteristics, visual signs of disorder, and recorded crime all have direct and independent effects on individual-level fear of crime. Additionally, the study demonstrates that individual differences in fear of crime are strongly moderated by neighborhood socioeconomic characteristics; between-group differences in expressed fear of crime are both exacerbated and ameliorated by the characteristics of the areas in which people live. Paper published as Brunton-Smith IR, & Sturgis P (2011). Do Neighborhoods Generate Fear of Crime?: An Empirical Test Using the British Crime Survey. Criminology 49(2):331-369 30 May 2011 Available at: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1745-9125.2011.00228.x/abstrac