The literature on fear of crime has grown rapidly in the last three decades. This paper examines the reasons for this growth and attempts to put some structure on the work to date. The inadequacies of measures of fear of crime are discussed and alternative approaches suggested. Alternative explanatory theories are compared and strategies for reducing fear reviewed.

Fear of crime: A review of the literature.

Researchers suggest that fear of crime arises from community disorder, cues in the social and physical environment that are distinct from crime itself. Three ecological methods of measuring community disorder are presented: resident perceptions reported in surveys and on-site observations by trained raters, both aggregated to the street block level, and content analysis of crime- and disorder-related newspaper articles aggregated to the neighborhood level. Each method demonstrated adequate reliability and roughly equal ability to predict subsequent fear of crime among 412 residents of 50 blocks in 50 neighborhoods in Baltimore, MD. Pearson and partial correlations (controlling for sex, race, age, and victimization) were calculated at multiple levels of analysis: individual, individual deviation from block, and community (block/neighborhood). Hierarchical linear models provided comparable results under more stringent conditions. Results linking different measure of disorder with fear, and individual and aggregated demographics with fear inform theories about fear of crime and extend research on the impact of community social and physical disorder. Implications for ecological assessment of community social and physical environments are discussed.

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Ecological Assessments of Community Disorder: Their Relationship to Fear of Crime and Theoretical Implications

Although criminal justice systems vary greatly around the world, one theme has emerged in all western jurisdictions in recent years: a rise in both the rhetoric and practice of severe punishment at a time when public opinion has played a pivotal role in sentencing policy and reforms. Despite the differences among jurisdictions, startling commonalities exist among the five countries-the U.K., USA, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand-surveyed here. Drawing on the results of representative opinion surveys and other research tools the authors map public attitudes towards crime and punishment across countries and explore the congruence between public views and actual policies. Co-authored by four distinguished sentencing policy experts, Penal Populism and Public Opinion is a clarion call for limiting the influence of penal populism and instituting more informed, research-based sentencing policies across the western world.

Penal Populism and Public Opinion: Lessons from Five Countries

Communication studies increasingly recognize the audience's critical role in receiving and interpreting media messages. Research into audience attributes that distinguish “media effects,” on the fear of crime (FEAR) has been limited—particularly as it relates to the reception of news. This study is based on a survey of 2,092 adults in Tallahassee, Florida at the height of a media driven “panic” about violent crime. Controlling for age, gender, race, victim experience and other perceptions of crime, the frequency of watching television news and listening to news on the radio is significantly related to FEAR. Reading newspapers and newsmagazines and recall of detail concerning specific highly publicized violent crimes are unrelated to FEAR. When audiences are disaggregated by gender, race, and a series of third attributes, television news consumption is significantly related to FEAR only for white females between the ages of thirty and fifty-four. This finding holds regardless of victim experience, income or perceived safety. Several explanations derived from previous research are applied to this finding. Both “resonance” and “substitution” have possible explanatory relevance, but the “affinity” of audience members with victims most often seen on television news may best account for the concentration of “media effects” among white women.

Crime, News and Fear of Crime: Toward an Identification of Audience Effects

This is the substantially updated and revised third edition of the highly acclaimed Handbook of Criminology. It is the most comprehensible and authoritative single volume guide to the subject; combining masterly reviews of all the key topics with extensive references to aid further research. In addition to the history of the discipline and reviews of different theoretical perspectives, the book provides up-to-date reviews of such diverse topics as crime statistics, the criminal justice process, race and gender and the media and crime. It is essential reading for all teachers and students of criminology and an indispensable source book for professionals.

Media made criminality: The representation of crime in the mass media

This article reports a three-stage study of the relationship between newspaper reporting of crime and fear of crime. The first stage measured the amount of space and prominence given to crime, particularly violent crime, in ten British daily newspapers. The second stage of the study was a questionnaire survey of the relationship between newspaper reporting of crime and fear of crime. A significant positive correlation was found which appeared to be independent of demographic factors associated with readership. The third stage examined qualitative aspects of reporting styles in these newspapers. Consistent differences were found between newspapers. Those newspapers classified as 'broadsheets' carried proportionally fewer crime reports and reported crimes in a less sensational fashion than the 'tabloids', particularly low-market ones. Fear of crime (FOC) has been identified as a problem in its own right. A Home Office working party recently noted that 'fear of crime will grow unless checked. As an issue of social concern, it has to be taken as seriously as . . . crime prevention and reduction' (Home Office 1989: ii). Moore and Trojanowicz (1988) argue that reasonable fears concerning crime can be harnessed to fight the threat of crime, but when these fears become unreasonable they amount to a counterproductive response and become a social problem.

Paul Williams

Papers

FEAR OF CRIME: READ ALL ABOUT IT?The Relationship between Newspaper Crime Reporting and Fear of Crime