Despite the decrease in the global crime rate, the fear of crime has grown significantly over the last decades. There are several implications that are needed to be kept in mind while examining the causes of the fear’s increased popularity. Curiel and Bishop (2017) report that the rate of victimization, meaning the rate of actual crime taking place, is opposite to the rate of fear of crime. For example, the areas that are most secured with the lowest number of crimes tend to be more fearful than people from the areas where the crime rate is high.
One explanation for the heightened feeling of fear among individuals is that the rate of violent crime is still high, even though the general crime rate has decreased. Bureau of Justice Statistics reports that “17 out of every 1,000 residents age 12 or older and living in an urban area were victimized by violent crime in 2009” (as cited in Greene and Heilbrun, 2018, 9. 46). Moreover, Curiel and Bishop (2017) suggest that the instances of victimization are distributed unevenly across the areas, which distorts the image of crime for some individuals. In other words, people may not realize that the crime rate is decreasing when they think about the areas with a high concentration of crime.
Furthermore, technological advancement made it possible to report and document more instances of crime. With the development of the Internet, the public is more exposed to current criminal activity. Police identify more criminals, which creates a solid, vivid face of crime, regularly appearing on TV and Internet news. Therefore, people right now are more informed about their threats to their safety than during the times, where instant access to the information was not possible, which may be the factor for the increased level of fear of crime.
Reference
Curiel, R. P., & Bishop, S. R. (2018). Fear of crime: the impact of different distributions of victimisation.Palgrave Communications, 4(1), 1-8. Web.
Greene, E., & Heilbrun, K. (2018). Wrightsman’s psychology and the legal system. Cengage Learning.