Fear of crime and home security systems (original) (raw)
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Journal of Housing and the Built Environment, 2011
Dramatic increases in crime and fear of crime in Mexico have encouraged interest in research questions about the relationship of fear with new housing developments. We have seen increases in the number of gated communities and apartment buildings in Mexico City as a response to fear of crime. But there are two problems. First, it is not known if these housing options actually help control fear of crime. Second, fear of crime theories are pending further empirical testing worldwide. The end results include general misunderstanding and weak connections between theory and reality. This study shows that neither gated communities nor apartment buildings seem to provide lower levels of fear of crime when home alone. This statement was verified through non-parametric bivariate tests, ordinal logistic, and binary logistic regression analyses. Other variables held constant …
Fear of Crime in Residential Communities
Criminology, 1979
0 Three variables were hypothesized to cause a fear of crime and apotential change in behavior. These were: ( I ) crimes against a person rather than crimes against property: (2) a crime commirted in an area frequented rather than a crime occurring in an area one never entered; (3) a recurring crime rather than a crime that occurred once. Two diJferent samples of female subjects (n = 249) were approached at their residences and were asked 10 read one of a number offictitious crime stories that the news media supposedly had not reported and to complete two scales measuring: ( I ) an emotional response to crime and (2) a potential behavioral response to crime. The results indicate that a physical assault produces both more fear and more potential behavioral change than a burglary. A crime that occurs eight times causes people to consider taking precautions in comparison to a crime that occurs once. There is some evidence that a crime in an area one frequents causes more fear than a crime occurring in an area one never enters. Shotland et al. / FEAR OF CRIME 45 Carlotta Young is a doctoral candidate in psychology specializing in social psychology with interests in evaluation research and thepsychology of women. Margaret L Signorella is a doctoral candidate in psychology at Pennsylvania State University and is currently an instructor at Eastern Michigan University. Her interests include the psychology of women and developmentalpsychology. Kenneth Mindingall graduated Brown University (B. A.) 1973. Washington University (M.A.) 1975. and Pennsylvania State University (M.S.) 1978. Mr. Mindingall is currently employed as partial Hospitalization Coordinator
Determinant factors in the perception of crime-related insecurity in Mexico
IDB Working Paper Series, 2013
What determines the feeling of insecurity with respect to crime and what can be done about it? This study proposes and tests a correlational model that combines different theoretical determinants of insecurity and the fear of crime. The test was carried out both in the country as a whole and in the Mexico City Metropolitan Area. The sources of information are the National Victimization Survey and Perception on Public Security (ENVIPE) of 2011 and the Victimization Survey and Institutional Effectiveness (ENVEI) of August 2010 and January 2011. The findings suggest that actions to promote civility in neighborhoods and towns and efforts to develop a relationship of trust with the local police should be implemented in order to significantly reduce the feeling of insecurity.
2021
Objectives: This research investigates tendencies for individuals to preference adopting weaponry to protect their home over unarmed defensive measures such as installing a lock or alarm. We extend the subculture of violence perspective to account for specific choices and test this approach against hypotheses related to situational reactions to threat. Methods: To explore differential preferences in crime prevention choices for protecting the home, we use data from 1,961 Seattle adults, collected during 2002 to 2003. We employ Osgood and Schreck's multilevel item response theory-based method as our statistical approach. Results: The results indicate that those who endorse the values of the subculture of violence are more likely to have defensive weaponry among their countermeasures against crime, although the results also show that those who believe the police act justly are more likely to procure weapons. Situational reactions to threat also influenced choices, though not always in the predicted direction. Conclusions: Beliefs may be an important determinant for how people protect themselves against crime. Further, criminological theory can successfully explain crime prevention choices in the general population, indicating considerable untapped future directions for research.
An Exploration of Safety from Crime
Journal of ASIAN behavioural studies, 2018
The feeling of safety from criminal threats has become a critical aspect on the quality of human life. One of the indicators in identifying fear of crime is the feeling of safety (POS) level. The objective of this study is to compare the POS in individual gated residential (IGR) and individual non-gated residential (INGR) areas. This study found that POS is higher in gated residential areas (M=0.90, SD=0.32) compared to IGR areas (M=0.57, SD=0.23). The results show that the rates of income, victimization, fields of employment and periods of residing in the residential areas were significant to the POS.
Victimization, perception of insecurity, and changes in daily routines in Mexico
OBJECTIVE: To analyze the relationships between victimization, perception of insecurity, and changes in routines. METHODS: The 8,170 subjects of both sexes (49.9% women and 50.1% men) aged between 12 and 60 years, selected from a proportional stratified sampling, participated in this study. The measuring instrument was an adaptation of the National Survey on Victimization and Perception of Public Security. Chi-square tests were performed. RESULTS: The results show significant differences on victimization and sex regarding perception of insecurity, restrictions on everyday activities, and protection measures. 13.1% of those interviewed claimed to have been victims of a crime in the past 12 months. 52.7% of women considered their municipality as unsafe or very unsafe. In the case of men, this percentage was 58.2%. Female victims reported significant restrictions in everyday activities when compared to non-victims. In relation to men, the percentage of victims with a high restriction of activities was higher in male victims than non-victims. In the group of victimized women, the segment of women who opted for increased measures of protection against crime was larger than expected, while those of non-victims who took less protective measures was lower than expected. These same results were observed in the group of men. CONCLUSIONS: The experience of victimization implies a greater perception of insecurity. However, the climate of insecurity is widespread in a large number of citizens. Gender differences in a high-crime environment show the importance of investigating in depth the roles of both genders in the perception of insecurity and changes in routines.
Perceived insecurity and fear of crime in a city with low-crime rates
Journal of Environmental Psychology, 2014
Fear of crime is one of the most important problems in our cities, even in low-crime-rate areas. The aim of this paper is to provide evidence of the issues involved in the perceived risk of victimization and fear of crime in these contexts using the Structural Equation Model (SEM) technique. Five hundred and seventy-one people living in a working-class neighborhood of Barcelona answered a 45-item questionnaire including the following 7 constructs: perception of insecurity, previous threat experiences, social representations of insecurity, personal control and coping skills, potential aggressors, urban identity, and perceived environmental quality. Findings confirm the theoretical model, in which fear of crime is structurally related to: a) environmental features, b) personal variables, and c) social representation of unsafe places. In addition, we found that the role of social aspects is as important as that of environmental and psychological ones. Residential satisfaction and urban social identity appear as relevant variables.
Developing a model of perceptions of security and insecurity in the context of crime
Psychiatry, Psychology and Law, 2020
The current study was carried out as part of the CITYCOP project exploring fear of crime, risk perception and feelings of security and insecurity. Participants (n ¼ 272) from 11 European countries answered a questionnaire exploring measures of risk perception, fear of crime, anxiety, trust in police and related behaviours. A seven-factor structure is proposed incorporating 'Signs of Social and Physical Disorder', 'Trust in Police', 'Trait Anxiety', 'Collective Efficacy', 'Perceived Risk of Victimisation', 'Fear of Personal Harm' and 'Fear of Property Theft'. Overall findings suggest that the measures associated with feelings of insecurity are negatively related to the measures associated with feelings of security. Efforts should be made to reduce feelings of insecurity through encouraging trust in law enforcement and community interaction and reducing signs of social and physical disorder.
Fear of Crime in Residential Areas
Physical environmental elements such as gated elements are believed to have an effect towards the reduction of fear of crime in residential neighbourhoods. In Malaysia, the typical form of residences is that involving gated individual houses, while residences without gated elements are relatively a new development concept. Therefore, a survey on fear of crime among residents in housing areas with gated and non-gated residences was conducted in Bandar Baru Bangi, Selangor and Precinct 9B, Putrajaya. This research discovered that respondents inhabiting a gated residential area exhibit a higher fear of crime level (M=5.84, SD=1.23) when compared to respondents living in a non-gated residential area (M=3.85, SD=1.66).
Do Fences Reduce Fear of Crime
Asian Journal of Quality of Life
The Roadmap of Government Transformation Program 2010 reported that the sense of fear of crime among Malaysians is quite high which is 89 percent. So, the questions is, do they feel safe without fence? Therefore, this paper seeks on the neighborhood with no fence to identify the sense of safety and fear of crime (FOC) among residents. The result indicates that longer resident living in residential areas is significant with perceptions of crime (POC) in the neighborhood (p = 0.00). The more people go out at night is also significant with POC in the neighborhood (p = 0.012). Keywords: Crime; quality of life; fear of crime; sense of safetyeISSN 2398-4279 © 2018. The Authors. Published for AMER ABRA cE-Bs by e-International Publishing House, Ltd., UK. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/). Peer–review under responsibility of AMER (Association of Malaysian Environment-Behaviour Researchers), ABRA (Association of B...