‘I’ve seen people on the train, like really weird people’ hauntological reflections on the fear of crime

Abstract

By exploring the hauntological dimensions of fear of crime, this article proposes that this phenomenon exists as an ontological absence that manifests through the spectacle of crime’s imaginary, shaping thoughts, emotions, and movements. In so doing, we highlight fear of crime’s alignment with Fisher’s concept of the eerie – a presence that at once indicates an absence and an object that points to nothing beyond itself. Building on this foundation, we incorporate Simmel’s rendering of the Stranger and Casey’s theorization of ‘thick’ and ‘thin’ places to argue that fear of crime is not solely a reaction to crime events, but manifests as a phenomenon that circulates independently, akin to Baudrillard’s simulacra, reacting against crime’s imaginary. Woven through phenomenological experiences of place, fear of crime emerges as a stain, eliciting a strong sensory, anticipatory and often pre-reflexive response that alerts us that not all is as it seems. Fundamentally, we aim to highlight how fear remains an object that points to an absence, a phantasmagoria and an atmospheric sense of dis-ease, that can engulf us all and press upon spaces, societies and bodies in equal measure.