Experience and expression in the fear of crime

Stephen Farrall, University of Keele,Emily Gray, University of Keele &Jonathan Jackson, London School of Economics.Funded by UK Economic & Social Research Council Award No. RES000231108

Outline

What is the fear of crime? Rationale of new measures of the fear

of crime Who are the ‘Worried-Well’? Theorising the ‘Worried-Well’

What is the fear of crime?

Those rare, but terrifying bursts of emotions

“A chair came flying over our hedge one night. Now I don’t know where it came from ‘cause I went shooting out to punch somebody’s lights out and there was nobody there [laughs]. […] I felt threatened for about two seconds at the time but now, nah, it was somebody pissed as a fart, “yeah let’s toss this chair, I can’t be bothered carrying it anymore”, that sort of thing, you know. They probably stole it out a bar or something. That’s the end of the story.”

What is the fear of crime?

Longer-term, enduring ‘social troubles’

“I would say I was more, concerned with the cause than the whole structure of … what seems to be, er, causing crime to be on the increase … and to my mind it’s not just parental control, drugs, violence on television, lack of control by, oh, schools being allowed to control, having discipline. I think it’s a combination of all these factors, plus the limitations that some of the courts have […] the real danger of remand and let out on bail, pending a court case, they’ve picked up new tricks and they go out and I think this, which is in progress at the moment, I think what judges are allowed to mete out in terms of punishment, the quality of punishments for certain crimes”.

Thus, the fear of crime is …

Short-lived experiences related to specific and immediate threats to security.

Concerns expressed for others (‘vicarious fear’).

Fears in the absence of direct experience (‘it would be terrible if’)

Wider, more expressive, social concerns and ‘troubles’.

After the pilot work was completed these new questions were incorporated into the 2003-04 British Crime Survey and fielded as part of the survey. The wording was as follows:

During the last 12 months, that is since [date], have you ever felt worried about [having your car stolen/having your home broken into and something stolen/being mugged or robbed ]? [yes/no].

How many times have you felt like this in the past 12 months? [raw count recorded].

And on the last occasion you felt worried about [having your car stolen/having your home broken into and something stolen/being mugged or robbed ] how worried did you feel? Would you say you felt … [not very worried/a little bit worried/quite worried/or very worried, with cannot remember as a hidden code].

Measuring the ‘experiential’ dimension

“Most of us worry at some time or other about being a victim of crime. Using one of the phrases on this card, could you tell me how worried you are about the following”.

The following crimes were then asked of in turn:

“having your home broken into and something stolen?”,

“being mugged and robbed?”, “having your car stolen?”

Measuring the ‘expressive’ dimension

Top-line findings

New and Old Questions: BurglaryNew measure (experiential)

Fearful in Not fearful in Total  past year past year

Old measure (expressive)

Worried (very, fairly 1369 (31%) 2480 (56%) 3849 (87%)and not very)

Not worried (not at all) 27 (<1%) 567 (13%) 594 (14%)

Total 1396 (32%) 3047 (69%) 4443 (100%)

Cells are n (total %).

Top-line findings

15-20% of respondents are UNWORRIED on both measures.

15-30% of respondents are WORRIED on both measures.

50-65% of respondents worry ‘expressively’ but have not experienced fear-provoking episodes. These people we shall refer to as the WORRIED WELL.

Who are the worried-well?

They appear to be …

… amongst the better off in society, home-owners, living in areas with high rates of professional employees, living in ethnically ‘white’ neighbourhoods, living in areas with low levels of disorder and low levels of deprivation.

… more victimised than the UNWORRIED, but less victimised than the WORRIED.

… a socially and criminologically ‘middling sort’?

Some Possible Explanations? Middle class ‘fear of falling’?

(Ehrenreich, 1989, Taylor & Jamison, 1999).

Anxiety about wider social change? (Girling et al, 2000).

The creation of ‘fearing subjects’? (Lee, 2001).

Intrusion of crime into middle class life? (Garland, 2001).

Working papers

The ESRC website is:

http://www.esrc.ac.uk/ESRCInfoCentre/index.aspx

Search in the 'Find a researcher' box for FARRALL, and then click on the item for ‘experience and expression’ for the project page, where we have placed three working papers, with more to follow.