GENDER DIFFERENCES IN RISK PERCEPTION AND NEUTRALIZING FEAR OF CRIME : Toward Resolving the Paradoxes

Smith, William R.; Torstensson, Marie

doi:10.1093/oxfordjournals.bjc.a014201

Cited by 188 publications

(153 citation statements)

References 13 publications

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“…While this interpretation has been shown as wanting (Pain 2001, Stanko 1988,Smith 1997) a new paradox is emerging whereby some eschew the notion that women -despite differences of, for example, class, ethnicity, location and sexuality -share fear, risks and experiences of violence by men. The development of this paradox is no doubt partly a result of the critique that some feminist work essentialises gender.…”

Section: 2 23mentioning

confidence: 99%

‘Safe Spaces’: Experiences of Feminist Women-Only Space

Lewis

Sharp

Remnant³

et al. 2015

Sociological Research Online

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The gendered nature of safety has been explored empirically and theoretically as awareness has grown of the pervasive challenges to women's safety. Notions of 'safe space' are frequently invoked in wider feminist environments (particularly, recently, in relation to debates about trans people's access to women's spaces), but are relatively neglected in academia. Indeed, despite a body of scholarship which looks at questions of gender, safety and space, relatively little attention has been paid to exploring the meaning of 'safety' for women and, particularly, the meaning and experience of spaces they consider to be 'safe.' Drawing on focus group data with 30 women who attended a two-day, women-only feminist gathering in the UK, this paper analyses experiences of what they describe as 'safe space' to explore the significance and meaning of 'safety' in their lives. Using their accounts, we distinguish between safe from and safe to, demonstrating that once women are safe from harassment, abuse and misogyny, they feel safe to be cognitively, intellectually and emotionally expressive. We argue that this sense of being 'safe to' denotes fundamental aspects of civic engagement, personhood and freedom.

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Section: 2 23mentioning

confidence: 99%

‘Safe Spaces’: Experiences of Feminist Women-Only Space

Lewis

Sharp

Remnant³

et al. 2015

Sociological Research Online

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“…This discrepancy between fear levels and actual victimization rates is often called the "gender-fear paradox." Several explanations are posed for this paradox, including suggestions that (1) women feel physically vulnerable because of their generally smaller physical stature than males; (2) women's fear of rape and violence from their spouses / partners / boyfriends "shadows" their fear of all other crimes (in other words, women associate rape with burglary, robbery and all other personal crimes, thus increasing their fear of those crimes because they fear they may be raped during that victimization experience, and (3) women's fear of crime and men's lack of fear of crime is part of the gender socialization process (Ferarro 1995;Ferraro 1996;Fisher & Sloan 2003;Gilchrist et al 1998;Goodey 1997;Haynie 1998;Killias & Clerici 2000;May 2001a;May 2001b;Smith & Torstensson 1997;Stanko 1990). …”

Section: Predictors Of Fear Of Crimementioning

confidence: 99%

Predictors of Fear and Risk of Terrorism in a Rural State

May¹,

Herbert²,

Cline³

et al. 2011

International Journal of Rural Criminology

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This article examines attitudes about terrorism utilizing criminological literature about fear of crime and perceived risk of victimization and data from a statewide survey of 1,617 adults in Kentucky. Measures of both fear of terrorism and perceived risk of terrorism were geography based. The demographic variables had minimal impact on both perceived risk of terrorism and fear of terrorism, although gender was significantly related to both, suggesting a link based on socialization experiences of men and women. Although rural residence had a small but statistically significant relationship to perceived risk, it was not related to fear. The strongest predictor of fear was perceived risk itself, which mirrors research on the close association of fear of crime and perceived risk to victimization.

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“…Killias, 1990;Hale, 1996;Smith & Torstensson, 1997;Vanderveen, 2007;Farrall et al, 2007). Interpretations of the social and physical environment provide information about risk to observers (Ferraro, 1995).…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

A psychological perspective on vulnerability in the fear of crime

Jackson¹

2009

Psychology, Crime & Law

255

247

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This document is the author's final manuscript accepted version of the journal article, incorporating any revisions agreed during the peer review process. Some differences between this version and the published version may remain. You are advised to consult the publisher's version if you wish to cite from it. AbstractThis paper examines vulnerability and risk perception in the fear of crime. Past studies have often treated gender and age as proxies for vulnerability, and on the few occasions that vulnerability has been operationalised, there has been little agreement on the mechanisms that underpin perceived susceptibility. To develop a more theoretically-driven approach, the current study examines whether markers of vulnerability are associated with higher levels of fear through mediating assessments of likelihood, control and consequence. Females are found to worry more frequently than males partly because (a) they feel less able to physically defend themselves, (b) they have lower perceived self-efficacy, (c) they have higher perceived negative impact, and (d) they see the likelihood of victimisation as higher for themselves and for their social group. Younger people are also found to worry more frequently than older people, but differential vulnerability does not explain this association. Finally structural equation modelling shows that the effects on worry of physical defence capabilities, selfefficacy and perceived consequence are mostly mediated through judgements of absolute and relative risk. Conclusions focus on the implications of this finding for debates about the rationality of the fear of crime.

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GENDER DIFFERENCES IN RISK PERCEPTION AND NEUTRALIZING FEAR OF CRIME : Toward Resolving the Paradoxes

Cited by 188 publications

References 13 publications

‘Safe Spaces’: Experiences of Feminist Women-Only Space

‘Safe Spaces’: Experiences of Feminist Women-Only Space

Predictors of Fear and Risk of Terrorism in a Rural State

A psychological perspective on vulnerability in the fear of crime

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