NCJ Number
108961
Journal
Canadian Police College Journal Volume: 11 Issue: 3 Dated: (1987) Pages: 170-196
Date Published
1987
Length
27 pages
Annotation
This article proposes a model to explain the fear of crime and suggests police-community strategies for reducing the fear of crime.
Abstract
Fear of crime produces avoidance behaviors that undermine the fearful person's quality of life and, ultimately, the quality of the community's life. Therefore, the topic is worthy of analysis with a view toward reducing it. The proposed model indicates that one factor in fear of crime is a person's assessment of personal vulnerability to crime. This assessment of vulnerability depends on such factors as age, sex, and socioeconomic status. Fear of crime is also enhanced or diminished by neighborhood conditions. Personal and vicarious experience with crime is another factor that determines the fear of crime. Recent studies indicate there are effective and inexpensive means of reducing the fear of crime. They include a police-community newsletter, decentralized neighborhood police stations, reduction in neighborhood conditions that cue the fear of crime, and citizen patrols. Strategies which maximize police-citizen cooperation in addressing particular community problems have been particularly effective. 97 references.