Experience and expression in the fear of crime

Experience and expression in the fear of crime Stephen Farrall, University of Keele, Emily Gray, University of Keele & Jonathan Jackson, London School of Economics. Funded by UK Economic & Social Research Council Award No. RES000231108

Outline • Introduction • What is the fear of crime? • Rationale of new measures of the fear of crime • Modelling the fear of crime

Introduction • Origins: dissatisfaction with standard measures (e.g. Farrall et al 1997) • Designed new measures (Farrall 2004) • Employed in BCS 2003-04 • Current project seeks to explore these measures in more detail

What is the fear of crime? • Those rare, but terrifying bursts of emotions “A chair came flying over our hedge one night. Now I don’t know where it came from ‘cause I went shooting out to punch somebody’s lights out and there was nobody there [laughs]. […] I felt threatened for about two seconds at the time but now, nah, it was somebody pissed as a fart, “yeah let’s toss this chair, I can’t be bothered carrying it anymore”, that sort of thing, you know. They probably stole it out a bar or something. That’s the end of the story.”

What is the fear of crime? • Those ‘niggling doubts’ SF: One of the things I’m interested in is … what it is to worry about something, you know, its very easy to say people may worry about it but what does that actually mean? Is it something which prays on your mind all of the time, the worry that somebody may break into your home? D15: No, when you go out its the worry, like I say, you might go out and then you’ll start to wonder ‘did I lock this?, did I lock that?’ but after you’re out a while, it goes away, you forget. You forget about it till you come back you know or if you’re maybe taking longer than you thought you would, you’re hurrying back you know. That’s what it is to worry about it.

What is the fear of crime? • Longer-term, enduring ‘social troubles’ “I would say I was more, concerned with the cause than the whole structure of … what seems to be, er, causing crime to be on the increase … and to my mind it’s not just parental control, drugs, violence on television, lack of control by, oh, schools being allowed to control, having discipline. I think it’s a combination of all these factors, plus the limitations that some of the courts have […] the real danger of remand and let out on bail, pending a court case, they’ve picked up new tricks and they go out and I think this, which is in progress at the moment, I think what judges are allowed to mete out in terms of punishment, the quality of punishments for certain crimes”.

Thus, the fear of crime is … • Short-lived experiences related to specific and immediate threats to security. • ‘Niggling doubts’. • Concerns expressed for others (‘vicarious fear’). • Fears in the absence of direct experience (‘it would be terrible if’) • Wider, more expressive, social concerns and ‘troubles’.

Measuring the ‘experiential’ dimension • After the pilot work was completed these new questions were incorporated into the 2003-04 British Crime Survey and fielded as part of the survey. The wording was as follows: • During the last 12 months, that is since [date], have you ever felt worried about [having your car stolen/having your home broken into and something stolen/being mugged or robbed ]? [yes/no]. • How many times have you felt like this in the past 12 months? [raw count recorded]. • And on the last occasion you felt worried about [having your car stolen/having your home broken into and something stolen/being mugged or robbed ] how worried did you feel? Would you say you felt … [not very worried/a little bit worried/quite worried/or very worried, with cannot remember as a hidden code].

Measuring the ‘expressive’ dimension • “Most of us worry at some time or other about being a victim of crime. Using one of the phrases on this card, could you tell me how worried you are about the following”. The following crimes were then asked of in turn: “having your home broken into and something stolen?”, “being mugged and robbed?”, “having your car stolen?”

Modelling the fear of crime

What does this mean? • Expressive dimension related to concerns about disorder – earlier work suggests that these are related to authoritarianism and attitudes towards social change (Jackson, 2004) • Concerns about disorder related to positive area level experiences of change • Experiential dimension related to victimisation experiences and more closer related to perceptions of likelihood of victimisation

Consequential thinking • Evidence for left realist position (worries are not irrational) • Evidence also for more recent thinking (worries now a feature of middle class life/worry not directly related to crime but to social change/authoritarianism too)

Impact of fear of crime on confidence in criminal justice… • Confidence in: CPS, judges, magistrates, prisons, probation services and juvenile courts • Anxiety about crime is not a statistically significant predictor (even bivariate) • Everyday worry is associated with lower levels of confidence, even controlling for concerns about disorder, social cohesion and collective efficacy • Confidence in the cops • Anxiety about crime is not a statistically signficiant predictor when controlling for disorder, social cohesion and collective efficacy • Frequent everyday worry is associated with lower levels, even controlling for community concerns

Experience and expression in the fear of crime