Defining fear of crime in the neighbourhood

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Fear of crime refers to the fear, rather than to the actual likelihood, of being a victim of crime. The concept is typically measured as one's perceived level of safety in different situations, for example, in the home, the community or on public transportation. This study relies on a measure of fear of crime that most closely approximates the notion of fear of crime within one's neighbourhood.

The 2004 GSS asked respondents how safe they felt from crime while walking alone in their areas after dark. Possible responses included very safe, reasonably safe, somewhat unsafe, or very unsafe. For the purposes of this study responses were divided into two categories such that experiencing fear of crime was represented by feeling somewhat or very unsafe, and not experiencing fear of crime was represented by feeling very or reasonably safe. Among the population of urban Canadians aged 15 years and older considered in this study, 18% (representing about 3 million Canadians) indicated that they experienced fear of crime while walking alone in their areas after dark, while the majority (82%) indicated that they did not experience fear of crime in these conditions.