The relationship between fear of crime and risk perception across Europe

Abstract

Cross-national comparisons of fear of crime have been gaining in popularity within the academic community, as they allow for the examination of both individual and country-level correlates of this phenomenon. Nevertheless, the role of perceived victimization risk in fostering fear of crime with respect to various country specifics is often neglected. Drawing on data from the European Social Survey Round 5 (ESS R5), the aim of this study is to explore the relationship between fear of crime and risk perception in the context of 23 European countries. Risk perception is positively correlated with fear of crime in all of the analysed countries, although the strength of the relationship differs. Contrary to expectations, countries with a higher victimization rate exhibit a weaker relationship between fear of crime and risk perception, while in countries with a lower victimization rate, risk perception plays a relatively important role in shaping fear of crime. No effect of unemployment rate, size of migrant population or income inequality was found in the data.

Comparing Residents’ Fear of Crime with Recorded Crime Data—Case Study of Ostrava, Czech Republic

“…The allocation of hotspots in relation to the perception of safety (Figure 3) did not provide many surprises, and the results are in accordance with the results from other fear of crime research, not only in the Czech Republic [52,57,58], but also in other countries [59][60][61]. The usual suspects are transportation hubs, in this case they are train/bus stations, urban parks (mainly during the night), shadowy narrow streets with limited public lighting and/or public spaces in close proximity to nightclubs/bars/gambling houses.…”

“…Gender is considered one of the most important predictors of the fear of crime, as women fear crime at higher levels than men [1,5]. This is usually explained by their higher sensitivity to risk and also that women perceive the consequences of risk more seriously than men [59]. This is particularly interesting when taking into consideration that women are less likely to become victims of crime and yet they fear crime more [1,62].…”

Pathways Improving Compliance with Preventive Behaviors during the Remission Period of the COVID-19 Pandemic

“…From among a range of psychosocial factors, previous research has demonstrated that risk perception is positively related with fear [ 14 , 17 , 18 ], and fear is significantly positively associated with preventive behaviors [ 14 , 19 , 20 ]. However, research has also shown contrasting evidence on the positive effects of fear [ 21 ].…”

Crime and fear in public places

“…Whilst such statistics, which emphasize broad gender disparities in perception of safety, are far from uncommon (Fox, Nobles & Piquero, 2009;Franklin & Franklin, 2009;Valentine, 1992;Whitzman, 2007), the characteristics shared by women who declare being fearful are significantly lesser known. Although there has been quantitative research into the characteristics shared by women who report feeling unsafe, such as their age, socio-economic status, previous victimization (Krulichová, 2018;Ferraro & La Grange, 1987;Warr, 1985), this research tends to treat these individual characteristics as distinct in spite of their pivotal interconnections (Liu & Polson, 2016;Pain, 2001;May, Rader & Goodrum, 2009). We submit here that those who are fearful are not a homogeneous group.…”