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Defining fear of crime in the neighbourhood

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. [Full text]

Who reported fear of crime in the neighbourhood?

Urban residents' reports of fear of crime in the neighbourhood were patterned by a number of socio-demographic characteristics. Most notably, women reported feeling somewhat or very unsafe while alone in their neighbourhoods after dark 3.6 times more often than was the case for men. This finding that is consistent with results from the 1993 and 1999 cycles of the GSS on victimization (Besserer and Trainor 2000; Sacco 1995). [Full text]

Multilevel results

The remainder of this study examines the variation in fear of crime across Canadian urban neighbourhoods. The aim is to examine individual and neighbourhood characteristics associated with the probability of reporting fear of crime in the neighbourhood—where feeling unsafe while walking alone in one's neighbourhood after dark is coded as 1, and feeling safe is coded as 0. Results are based on a multilevel logistic regression analysis of fear of crime. [Full text]

Conclusion

The purpose of this study was to examine whether the chances of experiencing fear of crime varied across Canadian urban neighbourhoods, and whether factors associated with individuals and their neighbourhoods explained this variation. In addition, the study aimed to understand how Canadians' perceptions of neighbourhood crime and disorder influenced their chances of experiencing fear. [Full text]