NCJ Number
132503
Date Published
1991
Length
50 pages
Annotation
This paper presents results from the Zurich Victim Survey of 1987 which involved the mailing of a 67-item questionnaire to a systematic random sample of 3,000 persons 16 years old and older in Zurich, Switzerland.
Abstract
This analysis of the affective and cognitive attitudinal components supports the basic assumptions of the learning model presented in this paper. According to the social learning theory model, the affective attitudinal component of fear of crime is explained by classical conditioning, operant conditioning, and observational learning. Fear-provoking stimuli are not only learned through direct victimization experiences, but also through so-called discriminative stimuli expressed by family members, friends, and other persons in an individual's surroundings. Cognitive variables, i.e., judgments about the subjective victimization risk, one's own vulnerability, and the general crime rate intervene to reinforce or weaken stimuli from others. In the main, the survey results show that both direct and indirect victimization experiences are important in determining the cognitive evaluation of crime. There is also the significant effect of the structural variable "community size" on the emotional reaction of fear in the expected direction. Regarding personal characteristics included in the analysis, the respondent's sex proved to be the most important for fear of crime. A positive net effect of the educational level of the respondent on the victim prognosis for property crimes was established, but the respondent's age did not show an important contribution in the multivariate regression analyses. Cognitive judgments and opinions on crime and crime-related facts were strongly associated with both fear of crime and victim prognosis. 5 tables, 13 figures, and 99 references