Combining the New and Old Measures of the Fear of Crime: Exploring the 'Worried-Well'

Experience & Expression in the Fear of Crime Working Paper No. 4

38 Pages Posted: 6 Sep 2007 Last revised: 4 Jun 2013

See all articles by Jonathan Jackson

Jonathan Jackson

London School of Economics & Political Science (LSE) - Department of Methodology

Emily Gray

University of Sheffield

Stephen Farrall

University of Sheffield

Date Written: 2006

Abstract

In this paper, the fourth in our series of working papers on the fear of crime, we will start to explore in more depth the relationship between our two styles of measuring the fear of crime. The top-line results explored in working paper 3 showed that, when asked the standard questions, a relatively large proportion of the population of England and Wales reported being worried about being robbed (around one-third), being burgled (just under one-half), and having their car stolen (just under one-half of car owners). However, when fielded the new questions, a smaller proportion had actually worried during the previous 12 months (robbery 16%, burglary 32%, and car crime 32%); an even smaller proportion had worried more than once a month (robbery 5%, burglary 11%, and car crime 12%). Intriguingly, the data thus shows that surprising proportions of people who say they worry about crime have not actually worried about crime recently. In actual fact, worry seems to be a relatively infrequent occurrence among the general English & Welsh population. Overall, our findings suggest that the old measures are tapping into some aspect of the fear of crime that includes the frequency of its experience, but is also 'something else.' Herein we attempt to throw further light upon what this 'something else' may be.

Keywords: Fear of Crime, Methodology, Everyday Emotions, Criminology, Policy

JEL Classification: I18, I31, I38

Suggested Citation

Jackson, Jonathan and Gray, Emily and Farrall, Stephen, Combining the New and Old Measures of the Fear of Crime: Exploring the 'Worried-Well' (2006). Experience & Expression in the Fear of Crime Working Paper No. 4, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=1012386 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.1012386

Jonathan Jackson

London School of Economics & Political Science (LSE) - Department of Methodology ( email )

Houghton Street
London, WC2A 2AE
United Kingdom
+0044-207-955-7652 (Phone)

Emily Gray (Contact Author)

University of Sheffield ( email )

Bartolome House
Winter Street
Sheffield, S3 7ND
United Kingdom
44 114 222 6832 (Phone)

HOME PAGE: http://www.shef.ac.uk/law/staff/academic/egray

Stephen Farrall

University of Sheffield ( email )

Crookesmoor Building, Conduit Road
Sheffield S10 1FL
United Kingdom

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