No abstract

Fear of crime has been a dominant area of criminological inquiry, yet it is has been examined only recently in a Chinese context, and it is virtually unexplored in Hong Kong. Using a sample of 170 Hong Kong college students majoring in social work, the current study aimed to investigate the effects of gender on fear of crime and their relationships to attitudes toward prisoners. In general, women reported a significantly greater fear of crime than men for all offenses except for being cheated. Fear of rape/sexual assault was found to be a significant predictor of fear of serious crimes for women but a less significant predictor of their fear of minor crimes. The shadow of the sexual assault hypothesis was supported in this study. Fear of crime had little impact on attitudes toward prisoners.

Although there have been a handful of studies examining the work of chaplains and prison volunteers in a Western setting, few have endeavored to conduct research into the experiences of religious workers in Asian penitentiaries. To fill this gap, this article reports on exploratory research examining the work of a selected group of religious workers in Hong Kong prisons. A total of 17 religious workers were interviewed: 10 prison chaplains and 7 Buddhist volunteers who paid regular prison visits. Qualitative findings generated from in-depth interviews present three themes: the range of religious activities performed, the importance of religion for the rehabilitation of inmates, and the hope of continued religious support to prisoners after discharge. The significance of this research is that it sheds light on the understudied work of prison chaplains and volunteers in Hong Kong and portrays the difference between the works of the Christian ministry and Buddhist volunteers.