Experience and Expression in the Fear of Crime
This study of the fear of crime funded by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) aimed to build upon previous research showing that the fear of crime is not as widespread as previously thought and may even have been misrepresented. The study sought to confirm findings from a pilot project and explore what the new questions arising out of this project said about the fear of crime, and the sort of people to report having experienced such fear.
Title: Experience and Expression in the Fear of Crime
Authors: Stephen Farrell, Economic & Social Research Council
Series: Full Research Report ESRC End of Award Report , RES-000-23-1108
Number of pages: 17
Availability: View full report on the ESRC website
Objectives
To re-examine earlier methods of measuring the fear of crime, from a previous ESRC award by Dr Stephen Farrall, to look again at how questions in the surveys and interviews can be relied upon to elicit meaningful responses from the interviewees, and to consider how these responses can best be analysed.
To take into account all factors contributing to the fear of crime – including gender, age, type of area, ethnicity and social background – and so compare old and new measures of this fear.
To explore the fear of crime in terms of how people experience their fear – what practical effects do the emotional responses to crime have in people’s daily lives?
To explore the fear of crime in terms of how people express their fear – how does the interpretation of fear drive the public expression of it?
To put the results of this project to practical use and inform interested groups in the UK and elsewhere about the prevalence or infrequency of the fear of crime.
Methods
Interviews were conducted about the fear of crime, specifically the fear of burglary, robbery and car crime, and the data collated from the following sources was analysed using statistical software:
- data from the British Crime Survey (BCS) showing levels of concern about victimisation, fear of crime and issues of criminal justice • data from a survey of people living in Northumberland, part of a 2002 Postdoctoral Fellowship
- results from 23 interviews with experts on the fear of crime
- results from 24 interviews with residents of one West-London borough
- results from 64 interviews with residents in the Glasgow area, as part of an earlier ESRC award
Key Findings
Two types of fear about crime could be identified from this study:
The first type was a fairly rare, everyday worry about crime. This is experienced as intensely frightening episodes where there is the feeling of real danger from crime. This tended to affect those living in high crime areas and who may have experienced crime either directly or indirectly and who may be more worried about behaviour and social disorder in their own communities.
The second type of fear was one of general anxiety about crime, a feeling that ‘it could happen’, more common among people leading protected lives in lower crime areas, which led people to caution and concern about society’s problems but which never emerged as acute episodes of perceived immediate threat.
People tend to associate the issue of crime with concerns about the breakdown of society and the flouting of society’s rules. To be afraid of crime is to show moral outrage and disapproval for the way society seems to have loosened its moral standards and the expectation to conform to a set of traditionally-understood rules.
Getting a copy
View Experience and Expression in the Fear of Crime on the ESRC website.
Last update: Tuesday, May 20, 2008