NCJ Number
226446
Journal
Security Journal Volume: 22 Issue: 1 Dated: 2009 Pages: 24-39
Date Published
2009
Length
16 pages
Annotation
This study examined the relationship between victimization and fear of crime in college students.
Abstract
Findings indicate that women are more likely than men to be victims of all types of crime, including: vicarious victimization; theft; sexual assault; stalking; intimate partner violence (IPV); physical assault; and family violence which includes physical and psychological abuse, neglect, and witnessing family violence. Furthermore, gender is significantly associated with campus fear of crime in daytime and nighttime models. The relationships are consistently positive, indicating that females are consistently more likely to report being fearful while controlling for victimization history and a variety of other demographic factors. The relationship between the specific types of interpersonal victimization and property crime and fear of crime were examined separately for both men and women. The results suggest that the comparison between the daytime and nighttime fear of crime models show that daytime and nighttime fear are associated with very different victimization history correlates. Daytime fear is associated with a host of crime victimization experiences, including stalking, sexual assault, and theft, while controlling for various demographic factors. Comparatively, stalking victims appear to report more persistent feelings of fear, which could be a function of coping mechanisms and other crisis-navigation resources, both formal and informal, available to sexual assault victims whereas comparatively fewer are available to stalking victims. Race is consistently associated with fear of crime as well, and the relationship is positive, indicating that non-Whites are more likely to report being fearful of crime than Whites. Data were collected from 1,921 college students from a large southeastern university. Tables, notes, and references