Experience and expression in the fear of crime

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

2. Outline • Introduction • What is the fear of crime? • Theories of the fear of crime • How did we measure the fear of crime? • What was our final model of the fear of crime? • What does this tell us about the fear of crime?

3. Introduction • Origins: dissatisfaction with standard measures • Designed new measures • Employed in British Crime Survey 2003-04 • Current project seeks to explore these measures in more detail

4. What is the fear of crime? • Those rare, but terrifying bursts of emotions “A chair came flying over our hedge one night. Now I do not know where it came from because I went shooting out to punch somebody, but there was nobody there [laughs]. […] I felt threatened for about two seconds at the time but now, no, it was somebody who was drunk, “yeah let us throw this chair, I cannot 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.”

5. What is the fear of crime? • Those ‘little 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 will start to wonder ‘did I lock this?, did I lock that?’ but after you are out a while, it goes away, you forget. You forget about it until you come back you know or if you are maybe taking longer than you thought you would, you are hurrying back you know. That is what it is to worry about it.

6. 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 is not just parental control, drugs, violence on television, lack of control by, oh, schools being allowed to control, having discipline. I think it is 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 have 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”.

7. Thus, the fear of crime is … • Short-lived experiences related to specific and immediate threats to security. (‘Worry’) • ‘Little 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’. (‘Anxiety’)

8. Measuring the Expressive (‘Anxiety’) Dimension (Standard Qs since 1960s) • “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 robbed?”, “having your car stolen?”

9. Basic Results: Expressive Dimension

10. Measuring the Experiential (‘Worry’) Dimension (new Qs developed for this project) • 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].

11. Basic Results: Experiential Dimension Fear Levels in the Past Year (Q1 and Q3 combined) N % Not fearful last year 602 62 Not very fearful 23 2 A little bit fearful 180 18 Subtotal low or not fearful 805 82 Quite fearful 110 11 Very fearful 51 5 Subtotal fearful 161 16 Can’t remember how fearful 1 - Can’t remember if fearful 10 1 TOTAL: 977 100

12. Differences? • Much more fear when we use the ‘expressive’ dimension (65% fairly or very) • Much less when we look at experiences of fear (16% quite or very) • But also capturing a different type of subjective phenomena

13. Theorising the Fear of Crime There are 5 main theoretical approaches: • The Victimisation Thesis • Imagined Victimisation and risk psychology • Perceptions of disorder and cohesion • Structural change and macro-level influences • Fear of crime expresses other anxieties

14. Victimisation Thesis • Victimisation, risk of, perception of increases fear of crime • Only partially supported by data • Most at risk least fearful (young men) • Ignores some forms of victimisation • One its own, not a complete explanation

15. Imagined Victimisation and risk psychology • If people can imagine themselves being victimised, they will worry • Hearing of or knowing others who have been victimised • Perceived impact and control important • Some support in the literature

16. Perceptions of disorder and cohesion • Perceptions of disorder suggest that crime is common in that area • Is control being exerted in that area? • Well supported in the literature

17. Structural change and macro-level influences • ‘Downward’ socio-economic changes in neighbourhoods/societies produce fear • Supported in many qualitative or theoretically-inspired studies • What about ‘upward’ mobility? Is this not just as fear-inducing?

18. Fear of crime expresses other anxieties • Crime and fear used as ways of talking about and making sense of the unknown • About trust, ‘othernesses’ • Links to psycho-analysis? • Crime as a convenient receptacle for the anxieties of modern life • Supported in many qualitative or theoretically-inspired studies

19. Our Integrated Model of the fear of crime • related to crime at societal/community level • related to social change • related to beliefs about/attitudes towards social change • related to perceptions of crime/order locally • related to perceptions of risk • related to knowledge of victims/crime • captures other anxieties too

20. Our Integrated Model of the fear of crime

21. Thoughts and reflections: Our conceptualisation • We think the new conceptualisation of ‘fear’ is useful: It differentiates between those who live at the ‘sharp end’ and who experience worry on a frequent basis, and those who have a more diffuse awareness of risk (expressive/anxiety dimension).

22. Our research suggests that there are two strands to the of fear of crime Fairly rare, everyday worry about crime (experiential). This tended to affect those living in high crime areas and who may have experienced crime either directly or indirectly and who may be more worried about behaviour and social disorder in their own communities. General anxiety about crime (expressive). A feeling that changes were for the worse, more common among people leading socially/economically ‘protected’ lives in lower crime areas, which led people to express concern about society’s problems but which did not emerge as perceived immediate threats.

23. As such, the fear of crime in some ways is akin to a social attitude • People tend to associate the issue of crime with concerns about the breakdown of society and the flouting of society’s rules • To be afraid of crime (in the expressive/‘anxiety’ form) is to show moral outrage and disapproval for the way society seems to have loosened its moral standards and the expectation to conform to a set of traditionally-understood rules

24. Thoughts and reflections: The politics of fear • In the 1960s, right-wing politicians shifted terms of the debate to push the agenda away from Roosevelt’s New Deal and get back at the civil right’s movement. • Loo & Grimes (2004) argue that the fear of crime was hyped up by rightwing politicians in order not just to win votes during national assembly elections but also with the longer-term aim of altering the overall political climate. • Thus the fear of crime was constructed and hyped by rightwing politicians in an effort to reverse the gains made by the Sixties insurgencies. In other words, it was an effort to shift the terms of the debate away from social justice.

25. Thoughts and reflections: Fear as a social problem? Fear of crime as an everyday experience (‘worry’) is less frequent than we thought: For the ‘worried’, fear is a significant social problem: it erodes quality of life For the ‘anxious’, much less so.

26. Thoughts and reflections: The long-view • Offer suggests that there are two cycles to economic growth: in the first economic growth produces high welfare payoffs as basic deprivations are remedied • In the second the return from increases in GDP is diminishing and at extremes, negative. • Affluence is associated with reductions in social welfare.

27. Thoughts and reflections: The long-view • Inglehart suggests that post-war cohorts have shifted the preferences from economic to non-economic rewards, and this has been as a result of their experience of economic security. • In other words, economic security drives us towards wanting non-economic goals – presumably including non-economic security (increases in ‘anxiety’?).

28. Thoughts and reflections: What’s next? • Accept that fear of crime is a bit of a sponge – that it condenses a set of anxieties about society and community? • Emphasise the distinction between experiential (‘worry’) and expressive (‘anxiety’) dimensions? • Reduce crime and disorder in areas where the there is more experiential fears/where the ‘worried’ live?

29. Summary • We have improved the measurement of the fear of crime • Produced useful distinction between experiential (‘worry’) and expressive (‘anxiety’) dimensions of the fear of crime • Developed a model which incorporates elements of previous theories • Tried to understand why we are studying fear at this present juncture

30. Working papers • The ESRC website is:http://www.esrc.ac.uk/Search in the ‘Find a researcher’ box for FARRALL, and then click on the item for ‘experience and expression’ for the project page, where we have placed all seven of our working papers.

31. Book Chapter • We also have a chapter in Professor Alfonso Serrano Maillo’s collection of essays on criminology which contains much of what I have said today.

32. Muchas Gracias! • Tiene preguntas?