NCJ Number
221464
Journal
Journal of Research in Crime and Delinquency Volume: 45 Issue: 1 Dated: February 2008 Pages: 39-64
Date Published
February 2008
Length
26 pages
Annotation
This study examined the effects of perceived incivilities and perception of crime risk on fear in a multilevel model.
Abstract
Results reveal that incivilities were predictive of fear at the individual level and suggest neighborhood differences in incivilities’ link to neighborhood fear through shared, neighborhood-level views about crime risk. In summary, at the individual level, incivilities predicted fear, and the impact was not completely mediated through perception of crime risk. At the neighborhood level, shared views of incivilities influenced fear, but not once shared views of crime risk were added. The results confirm that perceptions of crime risk are an important determinant of fear of crime, but that does not make perceived incivilities irrelevant. Although there has been extensive research on the sources of fear in urban neighborhoods, there are important questions about contributing factors to fear not yet addressed. To fill this gap, the study examined the effects of perceived incivilities and perceptions of crime risk on fear in a multilevel model. Forty-five Philadelphia neighborhoods were surveyed in an attempt to answer 2 questions: (1) do multilevel impacts of incivilities persist after simultaneously controlling for sociodemographic variables, perceptions of crime risk, neighborhood fabric, and violent crime and (2) is neighborhood fear spatially lagged? Tables, notes, references