Forensic psychology: Public attitudes to crime

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'Fear of crime':

  • Public society is become increasingly criminal and risky (Docherty, 1990) - due to the hysteria language that the media uses. Reality is that crime is falling, across the western world. Fear has become a sociologial, political issue in this country
  • CSEW 2014/15: 57% thought crime had risen nationally in the past few years, even though crime levels have been falling since a peak in 1995
  • Known as the 'perception' gap or 'reassurance' gap. - the public's seemingly irrational perceptions of risk as the communication has been misunderstood 
  • CSEW 2014/15: 'very' worried about being a victim of violent crime = 11%, burglary = 10%, car crime = 7%.
  • Fear of crime has become a research and polticial issue in it's own right, seperate from 'actual' crime levels 

'Fear of crime' and social inequalities:

  • women are more likely to be 'very' worried about being a victim of violent crime than men (15% vs. 6%) - CSEW 2014/15
  • Ethnic minorities more likely to be 'very' worried about being a victim of violent crime than white respondents (16%-25% vs. 9%) - CSEW 2014/15
  • Hindu (22%) and Muslim (26%) respondents more likely to be 'very' worried about being a victim of violent crime than other faiths (12%-19%)/ no religion (8%) - CSEW 2014/15
  • Sexual minority men more likely to be afraid of walking at night in their neighbourhood than heterosexual men (Meyer & Grollman, 2014)

Fear likely to be higer after Brexit vote:

  • About leaving the EU - blocking immigrants. Race card never played in this country, the race card was also played in the USA at the same time, Donald Trump and Mexicans.
  • People sometimes voted purely on the basis of race, regardless of job opportunities and other factors
  • Increase in disturbing behaviour because of this 

Fear-risk paradox (Hollway & Jefferson, 2000):

Fear-victimisation paradox (Clark, 2004):

  • Fear of crime doesn't always correlate with actual risk of victimisation. Both things seem to exist independently 
  • CSEW 2015/16: "How safe do you feel walking alone in this area after dark?".
  • 'Very unsafe' = low of 1% of men aged 16-24 to high of 26% for women aged 75+.
  • Reality is that those who don't worry about crime, are likely to be the ones that are victims. Usually the men, yet they don't report these kinds of fearss. Due to the notions of power and masculinity. Notion of gender and how we fit into our society 
  • But men aged 16-24 most at risk and women aged 75+ least at risk of violent crime.
  • Women typically felt the likelihood of victimisation was higher for them, they felt less like they could defend themselves/escape and anticipated more severe consequences of victimisation than men (Jackson, 2009)
  • Constraints of hegomonic masuclinity can prevent men from admitting their vulnerability (Goodey, 1997)
  • Problems with question wording e.g. doesn't mention 'crime', vague geographical reference, asks about something they may do very rarely (Ferraro, 1987)

Criticisms of CSEW approach to measuring 'fear of crime':

  • Farrall and Gadd, 2004: CSEW looks at how much…

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