Fear of Crime in Residential Environments: Testing a Social Psychological Model

Abstract

We examined fear of crime in the residential environment from a theoretical and social psychological perspective by constructing a model that relates feelings of unsafety to attributions about self, the potential criminal, and the situation in which the criminal act might occur. Using data from a questionnaire field survey of 440 residents in four urban neighborhoods, the model was compared with a socio-demographic alternative (comprising such variables as gender, age, and educational level). LISREL, a relatively new method of analysis that takes measurement error into account, indicated that the model has superior explanatory power and greater in-terpretability. Multiple regression analyses confirmed these results and point to ways in which operationalization of the theoretical model might be improved.