Geography of fear and fear of crime in society today has been widely researched. In this essay fear of crime is used in the context of an individual’s perceived risk of becoming a victim of crime. This essay will explain Cater and Jones statement and discuss how media portrayal, environmental incivility in urban leading to loss of authority of space by local people and urban encroachment of rural areas shape the ‘geography of fear’. These factors at individual, neighbourhood and community level will be evaluated in ways so fear of crime can be reduced in urban and rural areas.
‘In its social and behavioural impact fear of crime may be as potent as victimisation itself’ (Cater and Jones, 1989: 104) relates to the geography of crime, best defined as ‘the relevance of space to the study of criminal offenders, the incidence of crime and the characteristics of victims’ (Smith, 1989). In terms of explaining Cater and Jones’ statement, it means that it is not so much peoples ‘actual’ experience of crime that makes them fear it but the possibility and anxiety they could be a victim rather than have been a victim – the indirect perspective of fear of crime. In today’s society people tailor routes they take avoiding times and places deemed as dangerous and unsafe. This increases anxiety levels as Smith, (1986) says it exposes people to ‘emotional’ stress and constricts their movements. It is argued the elderly and youngest members of our society are the most fearful of crime however, of these age groups the elderly have the lowest risk of becoming victims of crime (James, 1992). Cater and Jones (1989) suggest how in certain respects ‘fear of crime’ is irrational with research by Hough and Mayhew (1983) conclude that fear of crime is not...
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The presence of crime in the inner cities of America is the result of many different factors. Although it is impossible to explain the issue with one single theory, it is possible to recognize the characteristics within society that have traditionally been associated with crime. These include poor neighborhoods, weak family structures and high rates of unemployment. However, they cannot be used to explain overarching mechanisms of extremely high rates of American urban crime today. Social structures as well as cultural conditions play strong explanatory roles in describing the causes of crime in American cities. Some prominent social structural theories include social disorganization theory, strain theory, and cultural deviance theory.
Young, J. (1981). Thinking seriously about crime: Some models of criminology. In M. Fitzgerald, G. McLennan, & J. Pawson (Eds.), Crime and society: Readings in history and society (pp. 248-309). London: Routledge and Kegan Paul.
However, his work has been very influential in both the policy making process and criminological theories both in Britain and around the western world. Merton’s theory does not explain all crime but it has great merit in the ones he attempts to explain. --------------------------------------------------------------------- [1] Merton. R-(1968) Social Theory and Social Structure.
Most people use second hand information as their core source of information about crime, this source of information usually being the media. When carrying out sample research in Birmingham, Susan Smith (1984) discovered that 52% of people obtained most of their information about crime from the media, 36% obtained it from hearsay or alleged experiences of friends and neighbours, 3% from their own experiences, and 1% from the police service themselves (cited in Jones, 2001; 8). However the media tend to exaggerate upon areas of criminal activity causing a moral panic. ‘A moral panic is a semi- spontaneous or media generated mass movement based on the perception that some individual or group, frequently a minority group or subculture, is dangerously deviant and poses menace to society. These panics are generally fuelled by the media, although not always caused by, media coverage of social issues… These panics can sometimes lead to mob violence… (newsfilter.co.uk).
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Reports on crimes usually follow certain patterns or trends relating to specific crimes deemed ‘newsworthy’ (AIC, 2017). Thus, it is evident that there are many statistical reasons for why the perceptions of crime can influence society’s beliefs on the nature of crime in Australia. Public anxiety about crime can be escalated to such an extent which leads to a moral panic based on a crime, specifically violent crime. “There is a widespread concern that the level and type of crime reported in the media present a distorted view of the real level of crime in the community” (Media portrayals of crime, 2000).
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Why are some neighborhoods more prone to experience violent episodes than others? What is the extent and in what sociologically measurable ways do communities contribute to the causation and prevention of crime in their neighborhoods? Are neighborhood-level predictors adequate to explain differences in violent crime rates in the respective communities? These are some of the questions addressed by this statistically intense paper published in Science 1997, by Sampson, Raudenbush and Earls.
Morrison, W. (2009) 'What is crime? Contrasting definitions and perspectives', in C. Hale, K. Hayward, A. Wahadin and E. Wincup, (eds), Criminology. Oxford: Oxford University Press
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In general, official statistics of crime recorded by the police and surveys of the public such as victim surveys and self-report studies are the three main measures of the extent of crime in Britain. The oldest method is to rely on official data collected by criminal justice agencies, such as data on arrests or convictions. The other two rely on social surveys. In one case, individuals are asked if they have been victims of crime; in the other, they are asked to self-report their own criminal activity. (Terence P. Thornberry and Marvin D. Krohn) Although these are a main secondary source of quantitative data, each of them may contain some drawbacks. Thus, this essay will introduce these three methods and demonstrates their disadvantages, such as the police crime statistics exclude the unreported and unrecorded crime;
Crime exists everywhere. It is exists in our country, in the big cities, the small towns, schools, and even in homes. Crime is defined as “any action that is a violation of law”. These violations may be pending, but in order to at least lower the crime rate, an understanding of why the crimes are committed must first be sought. There are many theories that are able to explain crimes, but three very important ones are rational choice theory, social disorganization theory and strain theory.
In today’s society there is a high fear of crime by society. Society actions show that there is anxiety and fear about crime. Therefore, anxiety and fear about crime has placid our cities and communities. Society express fear of being victimized by crimes, criminal activities, and behaviors. Therefore, according to, (Crime, 1999) states that “ the level of fear that a person holds depends on many factors, including but, not limited to: “ gender, age, any past experiences with crime that a person may have, where one lives, and one’s ethnicity.” All of those factors have a huge impact on one’s fear level.