NCJ Number
90747
Journal
Revija za kriminalistoko in kriminologijo Volume: 31 Issue: 1 Dated: (January-March 1980) Pages: 30-40
Date Published
1980
Length
11 pages
Annotation
Reflections and research concerning the fear of crime open up new perspectives in contemporary criminology and victimology. The fear of crime is often contagious, emotional, and irrational.
Abstract
Research mostly deals with street victimization, violent crimes, and with conventional crime in general. Little is known about fear caused by other sorts of crime, especially economic and political, and new kinds of deviance such as pollution of the environment, terrorism, kidnapping, etc. This is why public anger is mostly oriented towards street offenders and deviants belonging to the lower social classes. The fear of crime, various preventive measures, legal education, security measures, etc., all raise questions such as how to prepare people to be aware of crime and how to deal with crime in the mass media. Some pilot experiments, undertaken in Slovenia, state that individuals often do feel some kind of fear. However, a distinction must be made between the fear of personal injury and the fear of eventual group or social damage. The individual is considerably more vulnerable, although his fear often far exceeds the real danger threatening him. A total of 38 footnotes and 36 references are included. (Author summary modified)