TY - JOUR
T1 - Examining impacts of street characteristics on residents' fear of crime
T2 - Evidence from a longitudinal study of crime hot spots
AU - Kuen, Kiseong
AU - Weisburd, David
AU - White, Clair
AU - Hinkle, Joshua C.
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2022 Elsevier Ltd
PY - 2022/9/1
Y1 - 2022/9/1
N2 - Purpose: Microgeographic approaches have received little attention in fear of crime research. Based on growing evidence of large street-to-street variation in crime, disorder, and social integration factors, all of which are known to affect fear, even within the same community, this study aims to examine how street characteristics affect residents' fear of crime. Method: Taking advantage of unique longitudinal data that include surveys, physical observations, systematic social observations, and official crime statistics on 447 street segments in Baltimore, MD, this study used three-level multilevel analyses to examine the impacts of street characteristics on residents' fear while controlling for individual- and community-level covariates. Results: The results indicate that street-level social disorder and crime, rather than physical disorder, increase residents' fear of crime. In contrast, street-level social integration factors do not have direct impacts on fear, but concentrated disadvantage and low collective efficacy at the street-level might indirectly increase fear via higher levels of social disorder or crime. Conclusions: Street-level interventions focusing on crime and social disorder, rather than physical disorder, can be effective in reducing residents' fear of crime. In turn, we encourage future research on fear of crime to give more attention to microgeographic approaches to better understand contextual predictors.
AB - Purpose: Microgeographic approaches have received little attention in fear of crime research. Based on growing evidence of large street-to-street variation in crime, disorder, and social integration factors, all of which are known to affect fear, even within the same community, this study aims to examine how street characteristics affect residents' fear of crime. Method: Taking advantage of unique longitudinal data that include surveys, physical observations, systematic social observations, and official crime statistics on 447 street segments in Baltimore, MD, this study used three-level multilevel analyses to examine the impacts of street characteristics on residents' fear while controlling for individual- and community-level covariates. Results: The results indicate that street-level social disorder and crime, rather than physical disorder, increase residents' fear of crime. In contrast, street-level social integration factors do not have direct impacts on fear, but concentrated disadvantage and low collective efficacy at the street-level might indirectly increase fear via higher levels of social disorder or crime. Conclusions: Street-level interventions focusing on crime and social disorder, rather than physical disorder, can be effective in reducing residents' fear of crime. In turn, we encourage future research on fear of crime to give more attention to microgeographic approaches to better understand contextual predictors.
KW - Crime hot spots
KW - Crime model
KW - Disorder model
KW - Fear of crime
KW - Microgeographic places
KW - Social integration model
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85137734587&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.jcrimjus.2022.101984
DO - 10.1016/j.jcrimjus.2022.101984
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AN - SCOPUS:85137734587
SN - 0047-2352
VL - 82
JO - Journal of Criminal Justice
JF - Journal of Criminal Justice
M1 - 101984
ER -