The Causes Of Fear And The Fear Of Crime

Fear is defined as “a feeling of distress, dread, panic, uneasiness, alarm in the context of the immediate environment”. Fear is an emotional reaction rather than a judgement, it is a instinctual reaction to the possibility of danger. Almost all humans have experienced fear throughout their life, some have experienced a higher and more consistent level of fear than others. Two factors out of the countless number of factors that influence or bring on the emotion of fear more than other factor that are important to the topic I am going to discuss in this paper are perceived seriousness and perceived danger. Perceived seriousness is the seriousness of the crime problem. How people perceive the seriousness of crime can be influenced by the media,

This area is a street corner that is very dark with limited yellow lighting. In this area, there is narrow drive way that is barely visible without any source of lights. There is a store with a cagey thick glass protecting it from outsiders after business hours, trees that block your visibility, a dark alleyway that leads to a secluded parking garage, a lot of blind spots where offenders could potentially be stalking victims undetected, etc. The average individual would experience the fear of crime in this area because of these factors. Walking in this area and not being able to see what is five feet in front of you due to pitch blackness, seeing a store taking safety precautions to protect its goods, walking by narrow dark alleyway that leads to a sketchy empty garage with only one way to exit, and more factors are things that might potentially trigger fear in individuals. This area during the day would be the place where legitimate business took place, a driveway where residence took to emerge on the way the main road, a sidewalk that saw people come and go as the went on with their day. At night, when the area cleared out it potentially turn into the location of crimes such as the sale of drugs, robbery, rape, etc. The design I would implement to drive away the fear of crime in this area, is similar to the one I described for the alleyway that is present on

Women would feel the emotion of fear more than a man because in general, if a woman was to get attacked in one of these areas, a man would be the offender. Physically, a man is more dominant than a woman. So, the offender being a male would be more than likely to overpower its victim being a woman, which results in the offender being able to successfully carry out the crime at hand. In society, women are often portrayed and raised as weak and inferior compared to males. Due to the media’s turning the female body into a sexual object, the crime females fear the most is sexual assault. This alone is a vulnerability because it is not generally associated with males. This specific fear of crime would be present as a woman traveled along the three distinct places I described in this paper. The environment of these areas would allow an assailant to hid in the dark without being detected till they made their move on a victim being a woman and sadly they potentially could successfully carry out the act of rape on their victim due to the detachment these areas have from other buildings, walkways, etc as no one might be near to come to the aid of a victim. Male’s fear of crime wouldn’t be as high as a female’s level of fear because of the way society portrays and teaches males to act. Males are portrayed as a symbol of strength and