Worry about Crime in a Cross-National Context: A Focus on Measurement using European Social Survey Data

Abstract

This paper examines European Social Survey (ESS) indicators of worry about crime. To scale the measures into a single categorical measure, we use an analytical approach that combines statistical latent class modelling with pragmatic choices for the final classification of the responses. We also undertake an informal examination of the latent class solution in individual countries. Finding the ESS indicators of the frequency and impact of worry to be reasonable cross-national measures of the experience of negative emotions in people’s lives, we close the paper with an estimation of levels of worry in 23 countries. The results display a fairly consistent geographical gradient, with the lowest levels of worry about crime mostly in Nordic countries and Western Europe, and the highest in Eastern Europe and Mediterranean countries.

Keywords: Fear of Crime, Cross-National Research, Survey Design, Emotions

JEL Classification: B00