NCJ Number
209217
Journal
British Journal of Criminology Volume: 45 Issue: 2 Dated: March 2005 Pages: 212-224
Date Published
March 2005
Length
13 pages
Annotation
This Scottish study used survey data to explore relationships between gender, fear of crime, and socially desirable responding.
Abstract
No published research has examined the effects of socially desirable responding styles on reported fear of crime. The current study used survey data to obtain the first empirical estimate of the impact of socially desirable responding in this research field. The survey involved respondents 16 years old and older who were living at private addresses in the Strathclyde area of Scotland between January and March 1996. Responses were obtained from 1,629 persons; however, only a subset of 288 were asked the shortened version of the EPQ-R battery of questions that include a lie scale. The questions are written in such a way that a given response is socially desirable but highly unlikely to be true. Correlations were examined between the EPQ-R lie scale and reported fear of crime. The data show that for men, but not women, reported fear levels were inversely related to scores on the lie scale. This pattern held regardless of age, suggesting that the genders were affected differently by social pressure to downplay fear about crime. Statistical analyses suggest that this tendency is likely to be responsible for the observed inclination of men to report lower levels of crime-related anxieties. When this tendency was quantified and controlled, males may actually have been more afraid of crime than women. These findings raise concerns about apparent gender differences in fear of crime, as well as the use of fear-of-crime measures more generally. The findings may assist in resolving the apparent paradox between men's higher risk of becoming a crime victim compared with women and men's lower level of reported fear of crime. 2 tables, 2 figures, 10 notes, and 36 references