...Fear of Crime: Development, Progress, and Efforts to Erase the Negative Effects it Leaves Behind Abstract This study diagnoses the different aspects that cause fear of crime to grow or progress in society. Things that have stronger influences on the mind are considered on higher scales than others. This report has many different points; it will be focused most on: demography and how it is used to show characteristics of your 'common victim', the media's ramification’s on crime, what effects the mind has on crime, and crime within schools. It will also mention different theories and how they affect the thoughts that people have on the amount of crime around them. Crime is a topic in today's society that cast immense fear into the mind and thoughts of many people, putting hindrance on what many people do in their lives. It is depicted in abundance on television, radio, books, and other entertainment sources of today's day and age, therefore causing more people to focus in on crime. Due to the added attention on the topic, fear of crime, the physical, social, economic, and emotional vulnerability as a result of the stress from crime, is more common than it used to be. Fake court cases and exaggerated crimes are all over reality television, in turn, taking minuscule fears and making them extraordinary with every hour they sit observing them in front of their television a daily basis, one show after another. Mind over matter is a theory that is mentioned when discussing...
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...people seem to be more worried by crime, the research evidence suggests crime rates are not increasing. How can we explain this apparent contradiction? Word count: 2089 The threat of crime victimisation is ever-present in our daily lives. Despite the best laid defences, each one of us are likely to become a victim of crime at some point in our life time. Such direct experiences with crime can leave devastating effects, on the victims and their loved ones, for years to come. However, the chance of becoming a victim of crime is actually very slim. Media programming and reports are an indirect form of exposure to crime and the impact crime has on its victims. The likelihood of being exposed to crime through the media is far greater than chances of victimisation. In this technology-based age, it's almost impossible to avoid crime in the media. On countless occasions, the Australian public have shown a rising perception rate of crime and have a particular fear of burglary, motor vehicle theft and robbery. However, this widely-held view is in stark contrast to actual rates of crime over the same period of time. The public's fear and perception of rising crime within Australia is strongly influenced by the media through a selective process of over-emphasising violence and crime in news reporting and television programs, portrayed without context or consequence. Recent Australian studies suggest the general public continues to perceive crime rates to be rising and that burglary...
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...Final Paper New York City is comprised of many different kind of people. It is considered one the most populated cities in the world. With more than 8 million people in NYC alone, one may argue that it has a higher population than most of the states in the US and some countries around the world. New York City is comprised of five distinct boroughs and each has its own neighborhoods that make up each borough. The five boroughs are Brooklyn, Manhattan, Queens, Bronx, and Staten Island. I did some research on my own neighborhood which is located in the borough of Brooklyn. My neighborhood is Sunset Park. Sunset Park has its own unique history in Brooklyn and is considered one the smaller neighborhoods in Brooklyn. Sometimes Sunset Park is confused with Bay Ridge or Park Slope which are the neighborhoods that surround it. However, it stretches from 15th street to 65th street, from 9th avenue to New York Harbor (which can be considered to some 1st, 2nd and 3rd Ave). It is demographically diverse and has approximately 150,000 people. Sunset Park in my opinion is growing everyday and there are many different changes that happen right before my eyes. Sunset Park was named in 1965 after the 25 acre park built in the 1890‘s which overlooks the entire neighborhood. The park itself consists of playgrounds, a pool, basketball/ handball courts and has a gorgeous view of Manhattan skyline from on top the hill in the park. Sunset Park was known by many as a huge migration area during the...
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...Strategies and Crime Prevention October 21, 2014 Policing and the Fear of Crime Summary This article titled Policing, and the Fear of Crime, was mainly about the relationship between fear and crime and how it affected those who have been victims of crime. The article started off by giving examples of a nurse that was raped, a black family whose home was vandalized, and a teenager from the ghetto that is shot to death. The authors stated in the article that society would focus more on what the victims and their material losses rather than the victims fear and worry about repeated victimization. In certain cases this is true. When someone is robbed and you hear about it on the news most people specifically wait to hear what was stolen rather than how safe the victim feels after the attack. Fear can be a bad thing. Fear can prevent people from going about their daily lives and living and fear can make or break people. Fear is not always a bad thing though. In this article, several there were examples of fear making victims rethink their daily routines and activities and to take extra pre-cautions to be safer. This in turn makes it harder for offenders to find and prey on victims. This type of action is called target hardening. According to the article, society does not systematically collect data. The data on fear that is collected is generally very old. The biggest survey to cover the United States was done in 1980. A report called “The Figgie Report on The Fear of Crime” was released...
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...Age plays an important part in fear of crime and whether one may feel vulnerable to victimization. At some young age adolescents, in particular, don’t have a limited choice as to where they grow up and what school they may attend depending on location. One could even say that they don’t have control over how much their parents supervise them. Studies show that parents who have either over supervise or under supervise will likely have more fearful children (May et al., 2015). This particular statistic shows how supervision plays an important role in children development. Even more so the higher the isolation and the lower the attachment to parents, children become more fearful of criminal victimization (May et al., 2015). As one gets older...
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...Fear of Crime & its effects in a Community Introduction The fear of crime creates negative psychological effects in a community. Consequently, stakeholders in the crime prevention sector need to equip themselves with knowledge surrounding this topic. They need to know factors linked to the fear of crime and the magnitude or relative importance of each. But this will only examine two factors; gender and prior victimization is really important in crime prevention strategies. Rational for the research is to answer the question does fear of crime create negative psychological effects in a community. The research question will require validation of two major factors then it will eventually necessity linking those factors together. At this point, there will be a need to move from theory to operationalization of the concept. It’s been established that there is a link between gender and fear of crime but the link is not clearly understood. Additionally, it has been assumed that prior victimization is related to fear of crime but the extent of this relationship needs to be established, Gender, fear of crime and prior victimization .(Babbie,2005) It should be noted that various methods of asking one question are possible and each approach would result in totally different responses thus different analyses and results. This research questions may be asked in such way that they give open ended responses. For instance, the respondents may be asked what their fear of crime is...
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...the on the media for any information regarding crime (Surette, 1998, cited in Dowler, 2003), which will influence the public’s perception of crime. Research shows that as a society we are exposed to 7,000 crimes reported in the media per year (Howitt, 1998, cited in Ainsworth, 2000). The purpose of this essay is to examine the impact of the media on fear of crime. In order for a crime to be reported by the media it must be considered newsworthy, which is determined by several factors. These factors have been defined by Chibnall (1977, cited in Newburn, 2012) as immediacy, drama, the involvement of celebrities, simplicity, spectacular acts, access to experts, novelty, and sexual or political connotations....
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...Assess the strengths and limitations of using unstructured interviews as a means of investigating the public’s perceptions of crime and fear of crime. (15 marks) Unstructured interviews give the freedom to vary the interview. There are no questions prepared beforehand, the interviewers asks questions from the flow of the answers given by interviewees. This type of research method produces qualitative data, that is rich and in detail piece of research. Data gained from unstructured interviews are recorded by looking for categories from the answers given from interviewees and tallying each time the category occurs. Investigating public’s perception of crime is a difficult sample to investigate using unstructured interviews. In the investigation the researcher must ensure that the findings from the sample will be able to generalise and being able to have access too such sample could be very difficult for the researcher. During the interview it is essential that the interviewer has the skills and techniques required to be able to build the rapport with the interviewee.Therefore before the research is conducted the interviewer must go through training to learn the essential tips regarding the method of research they have chosen. However, training could be expensive and this may be a problem for the researcher. Age is not an issue during this research as the target audience is the public, therefore all age groups are targeted. However, children would not be able...
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...Impact of Media on Fear of Crime among University Students: A Cross-National Comparison Article Summary This article comparatively examines the impact of media on fear of crime among university students in United States and Canada. Survey Data based on samples of university students has been used to study the relationship between media and fear of crime. The fear of crime refers to the fear of being a victim of crime as opposed to the actual probability of being a victim of crime (Hale C., 1996).Behaviors induced by fear include avoidance , movement restrictions and constraints on socialization. Fear of crime has three dimensions: * Cognitive (Focuses on citizens ’estimation of their likelihood of victimization; * Behavioral (which focuses on how people respond to fear of perceived risk of victimization) * Emotional (which focuses on individuals’ feelings about crime) A different approach towards understanding fear of crime includes vulnerability (i.e. Ability of the individual to escape or defend himself/herself from an attacker). However, several researchers argue that fear of crime is a distinctly affective – thus emotional – and physiologic response to perceived danger (Ferraro 1995; Warr 2000). Studies suggest that fear levels have not changed among citizens of both the countries despite decreases in crime rates. It is assumed that increased levels of fear are the result of individuals’ perception about his/her vulnerability to crime which can be attributed...
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...Services Reducing Fear of Crime Strategies for Police Gary Cordner Reducing Fear of Crime Strategies for Police Gary Cordner Kutztown University January 2010 This project was supported by Grant Number 2003-CK-WX-K049 awarded by the Office of Community Oriented Policing Services, U.S. Department of Justice. The opinions contained herein are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the official position or policies of the U.S. Department of Justice. References to specific agencies, companies, products, or services should not be considered an endorsement by the authors or the U.S. Department of Justice. Rather, the references are illustrations to supplement discussion of the issues. The Internet references cited in this publication were valid as of July 2009. Given that URLs and web sites are in constant flux, neither the authors nor the COPS Office can vouch for their current validity. Letter from the Director Dear Colleagues, Fear of crime has an incredibly corrosive effect on individuals and entire communities. This issue is of great concern to all of us in law enforcement. Fear negatively shapes all aspects of the quality of life of America’s communities. The COPS Office recognizes that people not only need to be safe, but they also need to feel safe. Treating both of these issues as two parts of a greater whole is a critical aspect of community policing. That is why we produced this document, “Reducing Fear of Crime: Strategies...
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...seem to be more worried by crime, the research evidence suggests crime rates are not increasing. How can we explain this apparent contradiction? In a democratic society such as Australia, crime trends largely influence parliaments and ministries in crime policy management. If the media are found to be reporting an upward trend in crime figures, enough to unease the public, policy makers are put under pressure to increase punishment and change rules relating to procedures of criminal prosecution. Judicial decisions are intended to reflect public opinion; therefore a judge would then feel obliged to hand down harsher sentences (Pfeiffer, Windzio & Kleinmann, 2005). This, in turn, confirms it is imperative to address the substantial difference between the public’s perception of crime rates, and accurate crime statistics. As previous Australian and international research has indicated, a large majority of the public perceives crime rates to be increasing; they also have inaccurate views on the severity of sentencing. “The Australian Public overestimates the proportion of crime that involves violence and underestimates the proportion of charged persons who go on to be convicted and imprisoned” (Roberts & Indermaur, 2009). To help explain this contradiction in Australia, crime statistics have been analyzed and factors that could influence these inaccurate perceptions have been discovered. Two significant factors that influence the perception that crime rates are increasing, is...
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...Assessment Item 2: Critical Analysis Title Romer D, Jamieson K & Aday S 2003, Television News and the Cultivation of Fear of Crime, Journal of Communication Vol 53 no 1, pp 88-104. Topic The theme of this intriguing and thoroughly researched report examines the influence of media consumption on fear of crime, punitive attitudes and perceived police effectiveness. It widely observes the effect that wide reporting and viewing of violent crime has on public knowledge and questions whether the polling data is a reflection of violent crime in America or the television media accounts of it. Context Context refers to the set of surrounding circumstances for any text, piece of research, publication, event etc. Almost every piece of research will have multiple contexts (Study Guide Glossary COM15, 2013, p 94). This journal article portrays the growing insecurities and encroachment that mass media has on our everyday lives, especially its account of violent crime, and how such mediums can impact on the viewer’s account of such events. This journal article has been used and published in a variety of professional and scholarly journals dealing in a range of fields including media and communication, legal and justice studies and behavioural psychology. Structure The paper is in the format of a formal research paper. It is a format that is more objective and non-personal; it’s the methodical process that involves the collection and analysis of information. The paper endeavours to...
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...Cashmore, Jordan. 2014. “The ‘Fear of Crime-Media Feedback’ Cycle” Internet Journal of Criminology © 2014 ISSN 2045 6743 (Online) Thesis Reporting on violent crimes in the media is often described as fear mongering. Every day you turn on the local and national news and are bombarded with images of the violent crimes that are taking place in our cities, states and country, this increases the public’s fear of being victimized and creates a sense of impending violence. This article attempts to prove that the reporting on violent crime in the media in regards to levels of violence in our communities is actually beneficial in protecting the public by creating a: ‘Fear of Crime-Media Feedback Model’, whereby the media influences levels of fear in its audience and affects their routine activity, thereby affecting their exposure to potentially victimizing situations by encouraging avoidance behavior; influencing people to remain in their home as opposed to venturing onto the streets. The researcher believes that with further research, the model could be used to reduce the victimization risk to the public by using media reporting to influence the public’s behavior. Methods While the researcher did not conduct his own data gathering research, he did utilize research work that had been done in on this subject to support his thesis. The subject matter of these works include; the introduction of the ‘fear of Crime-Media Feedback model, violent crime and avoidance behavior, the...
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...would not actually have committed the crime— make that system morally unjustifiable according to Act Utilitarianism? According to Act Utilitarianism, the act that makes the greatest happiness to the group will be morally permissible. In fact, a person who is criminal will be judged by his ability to hurt other or committing a crime. The consequence of arresting the potential murderer will help to maximize victim and their family’s utility. Otherwise, if we choosing to refraining from arresting, murderer will be happy; and the victims will experience pain. In fact, one murderer can bring pain to many other victims; therefore, even if the system may be fallible Act utilitarianism says that it is morally justified to detain the potential murderers. How does this fallibility affect the appropriate description of the “maxim” describing the use of precrime for testing by Kant’s Categorical Imperative Procedure? I.e., should the maxim to be tested include acknowledgment of the system’s fallibility? State the appropriate maxim. The maxim of the use of precrime has stated that every potential murder should be put into jail to prevent possible crime. However, this maxim will be wrong if there is no crime that occurs. The fallibility failed the maxim because it stated that there is a chance that no crime occurs; the alternative is that the murder won’t kill anyone. In fact, putting a person in jail won’t help to decrease crime if crime doesn’t exist at the first place. Act...
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...people seem to be more worried by crime, the research evidence suggests crime rates are not increasing. How can we explain this apparent contradiction? Word Count: 1973 We have a strange situation in Australia. At a time when people seem to be more worried by crime, the research evidence suggests crime rates are not increasing. How can we explain this apparent contradiction? Current crime rates in Australia do not reflect the public’s perception, as criminal activity is steadily decreasing year after year. However, the public’s view is that crime is on the rise. Due to this unwavering perception of increased crime rates, some people have developed a fear of becoming a victim and apprehensive of crime and all of its components. Influences that can create or enhance these emotions can be born from a number of areas for each individual. Some of these can be due to personal experiences, the media, as well as a person’s geographical location. All of these factors can impact a person’s viewpoint of crime. This essay will examine the perception and how this fear has come to be, despite statistics proving that crime is in fact not increasing. The definition of ‘perception’ as per the Oxford dictionary is “the ability to see, hear, or become aware of something through the senses” - essentially what people see and hear will mould their opinions and emotions as to what is happening in the world around them. If a person has a fear of crime as well as that of becoming a victim...
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