The study provides evidence for the notion that the construct of fear of criminal victimization encompasses more than just the emotional component of fear and is, instead, multiply determined by several related external factors, including knowledge of law enforcement activities, occurrences of neighborhood crime, and knowledge of negative neighborhood characteristics. Thus, in order to reduce the fear of victimization, it may be beneficial to target improvement efforts at all three of these factors in order to be successful. Throughout the theoretical and empirical literature, there has and continues to be disagreement as to the specific definition of the construct of fear of crime as well as the specific indicators of fear of crime. Specific individual characteristics have often been associated with an increased fear of criminal victimization. However, prior research indicates that the concept of fear of criminal victimization has not been uniformly measured or measured using instruments that have not been tested for reliability and validity. The aim of this study was to build upon previous research by investigation various factors related to fear of criminal victimization collectively, including the role of preventive or avoidant behaviors, using a nationally representative sample of urban, United States citizens (the Criminal Victimization and Perceptions of Community Safety in 12 cities (1998) survey). Tables, figure, and references