Fear of crime in Virginia

Abstract

Fear of crime is as much a reality as crime itself. Our reactions to the problem of crime may influence or interfere with our day-to-day activities. Yet not everyone is a victim of crime, nor does everyone perceive crime as being a serious problem.

The author tests hypotheses about the relationships between the fear of crime and, (1) prior victimization, (2) perceived seriousness of crimes and (3) size of the community (population size); suggesting that all of these relationships will be positive--the higher the score for these three variables the higher the score for fear. Also, it was hypothesized that these relationships would be greater (a) for women than for men, and (b) for personal crimes than for property crimes.The survey was sent to a sample of registered motor vehicle owners in the state of Virginia; a sample of 952 was used in this study.

All of the relationships were positive. Only two of the sub-hypotheses were supported: that the relationship between perceived seriousness and fear of crime was greater for women than for men, and that the relationship between population size and fear of crime was greater for women than for men.

Implications of the results and the limitations of the study are discussed. Suggestions are made for future research.