Victimization and Fear of Crime

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Abstract
This article employs multi-item measures of fear of crime and a seriousness-weighted index of victimization experience to explore the differential effects of property and personal victimizations on fear of crime. Analysis from a probability sample of adults in North Carolina (N = 3,109) reveals that, controlling for other variables in the model, fear of crime, at the individual level, is tied to property victimization. Victims of violent crime appear to express higher levels of fear only when they have also experienced property victimization. These findings are discussed in terms of a general social vulnerability effect noted also for gender, age, and education.