In order to obtain nationally representative data on the criminal victimization and on fear of crime among the elderly compared with younger persons in the Federal Republic of Germany, a representative sample of 15,771 subjects from both the old and new German states were assessed in personal interviews. The seemingly paradoxical result that despite their much lower objective risk of criminal victimization, older persons show significantly higher fear of crime than younger ones has become a common belief within criminology in the last two decades. This so-called "victimization-fear-paradox" can be resolved by theoretically and empirically differentiating cognitive, affective, and behavioral aspects of fear. Additionally, gerontological concepts partially explain the linkage between objective risk of victimization and fear, on the one hand, and age and fear on the other. In particular, arguments from a gerontopsychological perspective reveal that older people are by no means irrational, but, on the contrary, behave in an adequately cautious way, because they are aware of their higher physical vulnerability to crime. It is due to their cautious behavior that older people are less often crime victims than younger people. What is typically labeled "fear of crime" among the elderly is generally not so much a neurotic and debilitating emotional state as it is a rational assessment of vulnerability to crime and the use of crime-prevention behaviors. 3 figures, 14 notes, and 184 references