Fear of crime

[4][5] Factors influencing the fear of crime include the psychology of risk perception,[6][7] circulating representations of the risk of victimization (chiefly via interpersonal communication and the mass media), public perceptions of neighborhood stability and breakdown,[8][9] the influence of neighbourhood context,[10][11][12] and broader factors where anxieties about crime express anxieties about the pace and direction of social change.

Underlying the answers that people give are (more often than not) two dimensions of 'fear': a) those everyday moments of worry that transpire when one feels personally threatened; b) some more diffuse or 'ambient' anxiety about risk.

[18][19] One can thus distinguish between fear (an emotion or feeling of alarm or dread caused by an awareness or expectation of danger) and some broader anxiety.

[28] Skogan cautions '… many residents of a neighbourhood only know of [crime] indirectly via channels that may inflate, deflate, or garble the picture.

[31] Such 'day-to-day' issues ('young people hanging around', 'poor community spirit', 'low levels of trust and cohesion') produce information about risk and generate a sense of unease, insecurity and distrust in the environment (incivilities signal a lack of conventional courtesies and low-level social order in public places).

[32][33][34] Moreover, many people express through their fear of crime some broader concerns about neighbourhood breakdown, the loss of moral authority, and the crumbling of civility and social capital.

The notion of 'stimulus similarity' may be key: if the reader of a newspaper identifies with the described victim, or feels that their own neighbourhood bears resemblance to the one described, then the image of risk may be taken up, personalised and translated into personal safety concerns.

[43] In 2022, Lee, Ellis, Keel, Wickes, and Jackson have found that media fragmentation serves a protective function in challenging law-and-order rhetoric that might amplify fear of crime.