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Gender Gap in Fear: Assessing the Interactive Effects of Gender and Perceived Risk on Fear of Crime

NCJ Number
205991
Journal
Sociological Spectrum Volume: 24 Issue: 4 Dated: July-August 2004 Pages: 399-425
Author(s)
Lesley Williams Reid; Miriam Konrad
Date Published
July 2004
Length
27 pages
Annotation
This study is an assessment of the interactive effects of gender and perceived risk of fear on crime.
Abstract
Research has demonstrated that fear of crime varies across a number of individual level characteristics as well as by their interaction with structural factors. Women are the most common victims of sexual assault, while men are the most common victims of violent crimes such as robbery or aggravated assault. The finding that women fear crime more than men may be the result of looking at some aggregate measure of fear versus crime-specific fear. Many studies have revealed that women express greater fear of crime than men. While gender has been the most persistent correlate of fear of crime, various individuals and environmental factors have been found to influence an individuals’ fear as well. Findings link levels of fear to perceived risk of victimization, prior victimization, age, race, and neighborhood composition. The effect of gender crime is not clearly uniform for different types of crime. One thing that was demonstrated in this study is that while much of the data collected on fear of crime tell more about men’s fears than women’s, it has been overwhelmingly utilized to make assertions over women’s fear of crime. To understand the gender gap in fear it is necessary to explore men’s perspectives on fear and victimization, as well as, take inmate violence risk into consideration when analyzing women’s fears. This study highlights that research must be conducted with attention to gender differences in perceptions of risk and fear of certain crimes. Tables, figures, references

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