The Causes And Effects Of Fear Of Crime In England And Wales (Essay Sample)

8121653895725[School][Course title]765000[School][Course title]13239752990850006121401038225The Fear of Crime: Causes and EFFECTS Analysis In England and Wales76500The Fear of Crime: Causes and EFFECTS Analysis In England and Wales
Table of Contents TOC \o "1-3" \h \z \u Introduction PAGEREF _Toc472511397 \h 2Causes of Fear of crime PAGEREF _Toc472511398 \h 2Crime experience PAGEREF _Toc472511399 \h 2Witnessing Crime PAGEREF _Toc472511400 \h 6Effects of fear of crime PAGEREF _Toc472511401 \h 7Quality of life PAGEREF _Toc472511402 \h 7Worry of being crime victim PAGEREF _Toc472511403 \h 8Methodological evaluation of Crime survey data in England and Wales PAGEREF _Toc472511404 \h 9References PAGEREF _Toc472511405 \h 10
Introduction
According to Lee (2013) fear of crime refers to emotional reaction by persons characterised by a sense of anxiety or danger. With almost every society experiencing some form of crime, Garland (1996) notes that, fear of crime has become a salient feature in the society affecting not only quality of life but also economic productivity of people. Lee (2013) notes that since fear of crime may not be eliminated due to its ‘direct attachment’ to incidences of crime, understanding it can facilitate in crime mitigation and provide informed decision making when handling crime related incidences and improving public ‘feel of safety’.
With this regard, this paper analyses the major causes and consequences of fear of crime in Britain. The paper utilises secondary data of crime survey for England and wales collected by Office for national statistics for year 2012. Both descriptive and inferential statistics are conducted to establish the relationship between the variables, as well as their levels, relating to fear of crime. This will allow illuminating the fear of crime problem not only in Britain but also the whole of UK. Analysis is done through Statistical Package for Social Science (SPSS)
Causes of Fear of crime
The main factors identified by Lee (2013) to cause fear of crime are experiencing crime and witnessing crime. This section presents analysis of experience and witnessing of crime.
Crime experience
Being a victim of crime is a major factor that can result to fear. Figure 1 shows experience of crime for 46031 respondents in the study.
Figure SEQ Figure \* ARABIC 1: Crime Experience (Source: Own Based Analysis on 2012 crime survey, 2016)
Figure 1 shows that 19.1% of the respondents reported to be a victim of crime in the previous 12 months as compared to 81.9 % who reported to have experienced crime incidence for the period. Vanderveen (2006) notes that being a victim of crime not only spreads fear to the affected person but also to the other people. This means that the fear of crime with respect to being a victim has a magnifying effect greater than the reported figure of 19%.
Table 1 shows a cross tabulation on experience of any crime for the past 12 months with gender, religion and area of residence.
Table SEQ Table \* ARABIC 2: Experience of any crime in the previous 12 months * gender crosstab

Respondent sex

Total


Male

Female


Experience of any crime in the previous 12 months

Not a victim of crime

80.0%

81.5%

80.8%


Victim of crime

20.0%

18.5%

19.2%

Total

100.0%

100.0%

100.0%

(Source: Own Based Analysis on 2012 crime survey, 2016)
This means that males are more likely to be victims of crime as compared to women. Sutton and Farrall (2005) finds that the fact that females fear crime more than men makes them to be more aversive to potential threats like walking at night, drug abuse and avoid confrontations. This could be a major contributor to lower percentages in females experiencing crime.
Table SEQ Table \* ARABIC 3: Experience of any crime in the previous 12 months * Respondent ethnic origin

Respondent ethnic origin (5 categories)

Total


White

Mixed

Asian or Asian British

Black or Black British

Chinese or Other


Experience of any crime in the previous 12 months

Not a victim of crime

81.2%

70.8%

75.4%

77.0%

79.7%

80.8%


Victim of crime

18.8%

29.2%

24.6%

23.0%

20.3%

19.2%

Total

100.0%

100.0%

100.0%

100.0%

100.0%

100.0%

(Source: Own Based Analysis on 2012 crime survey, 2016)
From table 3 it can be said that the mixed race has the highest rate of crime victim with 29.2% of the respondent reported being victim of crime for the past 12 months with white race experiencing the lowest crime incidence rate 18.8%. To establish whether crime experience and ethnic origin are independent. A chi-square analysis conducted is shown in table 4.
Table SEQ Table \* ARABIC 4: Experience of any crime in the previous 12 months * Respondent ethnic origin Test for independence

Value

df

Asymp. Sig. (2-sided)

Pearson Chi-Square

69.912a

4

.000

Likelihood Ratio

65.174

4

.000

Linear-by-Linear Association

36.743

1

.000

N of Valid Cases

45967



a. 0 cells (0.0%) have expected count less than 5. The minimum expected count is 62.33.

(Source: Own Based Analysis on 2012 crime survey, 2016)
The test result in table 4 indicate that there exist no relationship between respondent ethnic origin and experience of any crime in the past 12 months. Pearson Chi Square χ (4) = .000, p = .69.912 , p value is less than critical value=0.05 hence null hypothesis is rejected. This means that there exist significant evidence that ethnic crime experience is significantly dependent on ethnic origin. Consequently, mixed race persons are more likely to be victims of crime than other categories.
Table SEQ Table \* ARABIC 5: Experience of any crime in the previous 12 months * Respondent religion Cross tabulation

Respondent religion (6 categories)

Total


Christian

Buddhist

Hindu

Muslim

other religion

no religion


Experience of any crime in the previous 12 months

Not a victim of crime

82.4%

82.0%

78.2%

74.1%

76.6%

76.0%

80.8%


Victim of crime

17.6%

18.0%

21.8%

25.9%

23.4%

24.0%

19.2%

Total

100.0%

100.0%

100.0%

100.0%

100.0%

100.0%

100.0%

(Source: Own Based Analysis on 2012 crime survey, 2016)
Table 5 shows that Muslim affiliated respondent experienced a highest crime victim crime rate (25.9 %) with Christians experiencing the lowest victim crime rate of 17.6%. Religion has been cited by Said (2008) to be a source of aggression by people that leads to crime. The fact that crimes like terrorism is associated with individuals of Muslim religion with majority of people in UK being Christians could be a factor leading to high crime experience of persons in former category. A Pearson chi-square test (table 5) is used to test for independence of the two categorical variables.
Table SEQ Table \* ARABIC 6: Experience of any crime in the previous 12 months * Respondent religion Cross tabulation Chi-Square Tests

Value

df

Asymp. Sig. (2-sided)

Pearson Chi-Square

228.832a

5

.000

Likelihood Ratio

219.689

5

.000

Linear-by-Linear Association

212.839

1

.000

N of Valid Cases

45920



a. 0 cells (0.0%) have expected count less than 5. The minimum expected count is 43.74.

(Source: Own Based Analysis on 2012 crime survey, 2016)
The test result indicate that respondent religion and crime experience in the past two months are not independent. , Pearson Chi Square χ (5) = .228.832, p = .000, p-value is less than critical value=0.05 hence null hypothesis is rejected (table 6). This means that crime experience is not equal among all the groups in religion categories. Indeed, Home Office (2015) report that religion aggravated crime is a common recorded offence in UK.
Witnessing Crime
Individuals who witness crime are more likely to develop fear of crime because of the feeling that they could be a victim of such in future. Figure 2 shows analysis of respondents who acknowledge to have witnessed any form of crime.
Figure SEQ Figure \* ARABIC 2: Witnessing crime (Source: Own Based Analysis on 2012 crime survey, 2016)
Indeed, 30.44% of the respondent reported to have witnessed a certain form of crime that include both physical and word confrontations (figure 2). With the coupling effect through transmitting of information to other persons, fear of crime rates could be higher than the reported figure.
Effects of fear of crime
Quality of life
A major consequence of fear of crime affecting the quality of life of people. Fear of crime affect people’s life through foregoing of activities that can improve their economic wellbeing, socialisation and leisure.
Figure SEQ Figure \* ARABIC 3: Quality of life affected by Fear of crime (Source: Own Based Analysis on 2012 crime survey, 2016)
Figure 3 shows the extent to which fear of crime has affected the respondents with 1 showing least effect and 10 adverse effect. With 5, 584 respondents who acknowledged that fear of crime has affected their quality of life 36.87% reported to have the least affected with 1.074% indicating that they were adversely affected. Additionally there was general reduction in the nu...