No abstract

Professional empirically generated survey data about the fear of crime persistently indicate relatively small but statistically significant differences between fear rates expressed by men and women. Such differences are contrasted with objective crime victimization risk ratios; regularly magnified by amateur surveys; and have been ossified as stereotypes by the media. Subsequently, all women are believed to be fearful of crime; and all men fearless. The research reported herein encountered, paradoxically, fearful men and fearless women. A dissection of their qualitatively garnered feelings indicates, in a very provisional way, the general conditions under which crime-related fears are reduced and enhanced. Recent years have witnessed an increased interest in the fear of crime from both academics and policy makers. A plethora of studies, including several sweeps of the British and Scottish Crime Surveys, have concluded that such fear continues to impinge upon the well-being of a proportion of the population (see,