Fear of Crime in Europe Jörg Dittmann ZUMA – Centre for Survey Research and Methodology Mannheim, Germany Email:
[email protected] 1
Topics
Theoretical Conceptualizations and Explanations of Fear of Crime Relevance for Welfare Research Pathways of Fear of Crime in the European Union (EU-15) Empirical Evidence What are the consequences auf high levels of fear of crime?
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What is Fear of Crime? Conglomeration of definitions and operationalizations and measurings in academic research. Fear of Crime: "emotional reaction characterized by a sense of danger and anxiety produced by the threat of physical harm...elicited by perceived cues in the environment that relate to some aspect of crime" (Church Council, 1995, p. 7).
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What is Fear of Crime? Keywords:
emotional, cognitive, conative compononents
attitude vs. non attitude
crime related fear vs. general insecurity
personal/social dimension
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Aproaches to explain fear of crime
Victimisation Perspective Social Control Perspective (Impact of media, transmission of social fears) Social Problem Perspective (Disorganisation of the neighbourhood)
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Graph 1: Interactive Model of Attitudes to Crime (Boers/Kurz 1997) Personal crime attitudes
Coping Appraisal
Fear of Crime
Avoidance
Threat
Risk assessment
Victimisation
Social crime attitudes Crime as social problem
Vulne rabili ty
Social disorganisation
Sanction attitudes
Crimepolicy attitudes
Belief
SES
Lifestyle
Cultural normative orientation
Local crime reports
Social milieus
Social environment
Non-local crime reports 6
Table 1: Fear of crime as a negative component of subjective Well-Being Welfare Measurement Individual Level
Societal Level
Live domain: Public Safety and Crime
Quality of Life
Objective: Crime Load
- living conditions - subjective well being
Subjective: Crime-related Insecurity
Quality of Society Sustainability - preservation of natural and human capital Social Cohesion - reduction of disparities, inequalities, exclusion - strengthening of relations and ties
Victimization, “Criminalization”, Treatment of Criminals, Trust in police and justice, Environmental Crime, Crime Prevention
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Database: Eurobarometer (EB) 44.3 (1996), 54.1 (2000), 58.0 (2002) EB 2002: 16.067 respondents aged 15 years and over, face to face interviews, former 15 Member States, sample of 1000 respondents for each member state
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Graph 2: Time Trend in level of crime fear in the EU-15 70
60
50
40 31,6
30
20
33,7
32,7
31,9
33,8
34,1
35,2
36,0
42,9
43,4
37,3
25,1 18,5
18,7
20,8
22,6
15,3
1996
2000
Greece
Italy
United Kingdom
East Germany
Ireland
EU-15
France
Spain
Germany Total
Germany
Belgium
Portugal
Luxembourg
Netherlands
Sweden
Finland
0
Austria
10
Denmark
Percentage
42,5
2002
Database: Eurobarometer 44.3 (1996), 54.1 (2000), 58.0 (2002) Used Indicator: „How safe do you feel walking alone in the area where you live“ (1=very safe, 2=fairly safe, 3=a bit unsafe, 4=very unsafe). Displayed: Percentage of people who feel a bit unsafe or very unsafe
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Table 2: Country Effects in the explanation of fear of crime Independent Variables
Fear of Crime
Germany-West
.02
Germany-East
.17**
Danmark
-.61**
Finland
-.31**
Sweden
-.34**
Austria
-.32**
Greece
.16**
Italy
.29**
Spain
.03
Portugal
.02
Belgium
.02
Luxembourg
-.27**
Netherlands
-.14**
Great Britain
.23**
Nothern Ireland
,03
Used Coefficient: Unstandardized B, ** = significant p
