Data were collected through a random digit dialing telephone survey, 15 months of field work in each community, a content analysis of the metropolitan newspapers in the three cities, and archival records. The neighborhoods selected were typical of those in large urban settings and offered diversity in crime rates and in the socioeconomic class and racial composition of the population. The community was the unit of analysis, and neighborhood characteristics were the independent variables associated with fear of crime, the dependent variable. The study concludes that varying degrees of fear of crime in the neighborhoods were due largely to local institutions' failure to exert social control. Those communities whose residents exhibited a high degree of fear of crime had local institutions apparently incapable of controlling neighborhood changes perceived by long-term residents as threatening to the integrity of their community. This might include crime-rate changes; a decline in perceived security; and changes in population composition and size, physical upkeep, the provision of amenities and services, and the number and range of neighborhood problems. 8 tables, 12 figures, 85 references, and subject index.