Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-hc48f Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-27T07:51:04.441Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The Impact of a Crime Wave: Perceptions, Fear, and Confidence in the Police

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 July 2024

Mary Holland Baker ,
Barbara C. Nienstedt ,
Ronald S. Everett  and
Richard McCleary
Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Core share and HTML view are not available for this content. However, as you have access to this content, a full PDF is available via the ‘Save PDF’ action button.

In 1980, Phoenix, Arizona, experienced a “crime wave.” A structural equation model based on a two-wave survey of the population shows that the crime wave had a powerful impact that was almost a mirror image of what the fear of crime literature would predict. Demographic groups thought to be most fearful (e.g., women and the elderly) were least affected while groups thought to be least fearful (e.g., well-educated whites) were affected most. In addition to demographic factors, our analysis demonstrates that crime rate perceptions and confidence in the police are integral components of fear, especially in the context of a crime wave. These findings have important implications for crime policy specifically and for criminological research generally.

Type
Research Article
Information
Law & Society Review , Volume 17 , Issue 2: Special Issue: Psychology and Law , 1983 , pp. 319 - 335
Copyright
Copyright © 1983 The Law and Society Association.

Footnotes

*

We are indebted to Thomas Epperlein and Hiroshi Nakajima for assistance in data collection and analysis.

References

ANTUNES, G.E., COOK, F.L., COOK, T.D. and W.G., SKOGAN (1977) “Patterns of Personal Crime against the Elderly,” 17 Gerontologist 321.Google Scholar
BERK, R.A. and P.H., ROSSI (1977) Prison Reform and State Elites. Cambridge, MA: Ballinger.Google Scholar
BLALOCK, H.M. (1979) Social Statistics, Revised 2nd Ed. New York: McGraw-Hill.Google Scholar
BLOCK, M.S. and G.J., LONG (1973) “Subjective Probability of Victimization and Crime Levels: An Econometric Approach,” 11 Criminology 87.Google Scholar
BURT, R.S. (1973) “Confirmatory Factor-Analytic Structures and Theory Construction Processes,” 2 Sociological Methods and Research 131.Google Scholar
CAMPBELL, D.T. (1969) “Reforms as Experiments,” 24 American Psychologist 409.Google Scholar
CLEMENTE, F. and M.B., KLEIMAN (1977) “Fear of Crime in the United States: A Multivariate Analysis,” 56 Social Forces 519.Google Scholar
CONKLIN, J.E. (1971) “Dimensions of Community Response to the Crime Problem,” 18 Social Problems 373.Google Scholar
CONKLIN, J.E. (1975) The Impact of Crime. New York: Macmillan.Google Scholar
COOK, F.L., SKOGAN, W.G., COOK, T.D. and G.E., ANTUNES (1981) Criminal Victimization of the Elderly. New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
CROUSE, T. (1972) The Boys on the Bus. New York: Ballantine.Google Scholar
DAVIS, F.J. (1952) “Crime News in Colorado Newspapers,” 57 American Journal of Sociology 325.Google Scholar
ENNIS, P.H. (1967) “Attitudes towards the Police, Law Enforcement, and Individual Security,” in Criminal Victimization in the United States: A Report of the National Survey. Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office.Google Scholar
FISHMAN, M. (1978) “Crime Waves as Ideology,” 25 Social Problems 531.Google Scholar
FOWLER, F.J. (1974) Citizen Attitudes toward Local Government Services and Taxes. Cambridge, MA: Ballinger.Google Scholar
FOWLER, F.J. and T.W., MANGIONE (1974) The Nature of Fear. Cambridge, MA: Survey Research Program, Harvard-MIT Joint Center for Urban Studies.Google Scholar
FURSTENBERG, F.F. (1971) “Public Reaction to Crime in the Streets,” 40 American Scholar 601.Google Scholar
FURSTENBERG, F.F. (1972) “Fear of Crime and its Effects on Citizen Behavior,” in Biderman, A. (ed.), Crime and Justice: A Symposium. New York: Nailburg Publishing Company.Google Scholar
GAROFALO, J. (1981) “The Fear of Crime: Causes and Consequences,” 72 The Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology 839.Google Scholar
GOLDSMITH, J. and N., TOMAS (1974) “Crimes against the Elderly: A Continuing National Crisis,” 236 Aging 10.Google Scholar
GORDON, M.T. and L., HEATH (1981) “The News Business, Crime and Fear,” in Lewis, D.A. (ed.), Reactions to Crime. Beverly Hills: Sage.Google Scholar
GORDON, M.T., RIGER, S., LeBAILLY, R.K. and L., HEATH (1980) “Crime, Women, and the Quality of Urban Life,” 5 Signs 144.Google Scholar
HARTNAGEL, T.F. (1979) “The Perception and Fear of Crime: Implications for Neighborhood Cohesion, Social Activity, and Community Affect,” 58 Social Forces 176.Google Scholar
HINDELANG, M.J. (1974) “Public Opinion Regarding Crime, Criminal Justice, and Related Topics,” 11 Journal of Research in Crime and Delinquency 101.Google Scholar
HINDELANG, M.J. (1976) Criminal Victimization in Eight American Cities: A Descriptive Analysis of Common Theft and Assault. Cambridge, MA: Ballinger.Google Scholar
HUBBARD, J., DeFLEUR, M., and DeFLEUR, L. (1975) “Mass Media Influences on Public Conceptions of Social Problems,” 23 Social Problems 22.Google Scholar
HURLEY, P. and G.E., ANTUNES (1977) “The Representation of Criminal Events in Houston's Two Daily Newspapers,” 54 Journalism Quarterly 756.Google Scholar
JONES, E.T. (1976) “The Press as Metropolitan Monitor,” 40 Public Opinion Quarterly 239.Google Scholar
JORESKOG, K.G. and D., SORBOM (1980) LISREL IV: Analysis of Linear Structural Relationships by the Method of Maximum Likelihood. Chicago: International Educational Services.Google Scholar
KIDDER, L.H. and E.S., COHN (1979) “Public Views of Crime and Crime Prevention,” Chapter 10 in Frieze, I.H., Bar-Tal, D., and Carrol, J.S. (eds.), New Approaches to Social Problems. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.Google Scholar
KITSUSE, J. and A.V., CICOUREL (1963) “A Note on the Use of Official Statistics,” 11 Social Problems 131.Google Scholar
McCLEARY, R., B.C., NIENSTEDT and J.M., ERVEN (1982a) “Uniform Crime Reports as Organizational Outcomes: Three Time Series Quasi-Experiments,” 29 Social Problems 361.Google Scholar
J.M., ERVEN (1982b) “Interrupted Time Series Analysis of Crime Statistics: The Case of Organizational Reforms,” in Hagan, J. (ed.), Methodological Advances in Criminological Research. Beverly Hills:: Sage.Google Scholar
MOLOTCH, H. and M., LESTER (1974) “News as Purposive Behavior: The Strategic Use of Routine Events, Accidents, and Scandals,” 39 American Sociological Review 101.Google Scholar
O'NEIL, M.J. (1979) “A Little Help from our Friends: Citizen Predisposition to Intervene in Spouse Abuse,” 1 Law and Policy Quarterly 177.Google Scholar
RIGER, S., M.T., GORDON and LeBAILLY, R. (1978) “Women's Fear of Crime: From Blaming to Restricting the Victim,” 3 Victimology 3.Google Scholar
SCHNEIDER, A.L., J.M., BURCAT, and WILSON II, L.A. (1975) “The Role of Attitudes in the Decision to Report Crimes to the Police,” Chapter 4 in McDonald, W.F. (ed.), Criminal Justice and the Victim. Beverly Hills: Sage.Google Scholar
SEIDMAN, D. and M., COUZENS (1974) “Getting the Crime Rate Down: Political Pressure and Crime,” 8 Law and Society Review 457.Google Scholar
SENNET, R. (1969) “Middle Class Families and Urban Violence: The Experience of a Chicago Community in the Nineteenth Century,” in Thernstrom, J. and Sennet, R. (eds.), Nineteenth Century Cities. New Haven: Yale University Press.Google Scholar
SINGER, S.L. (1977) “The Concept of Vulnerability and the Elderly Victim in an Urban Environment,” in Scott, J.E. and Dinitz, S. (eds.), Criminal Justice Planning. New York: Praeger.Google Scholar
SKOGAN, W.G. (1974) “The Validity of Official Crime Statistics: An Empirical Investigation,” 55 Social Science Quarterly 25.Google Scholar
SKOGAN, W.G. and M.G., MAXFIELD (1981) Coping with Crime. Beverly Hills: Sage.Google Scholar
SMITH, P.E. and R.O., HAWKINS (1973) “Victimization, Types of Citizen-Police Contacts, and Attitudes toward the Police,” 8 Law and Society Review 135.Google Scholar
STEFFENS, L. (1931) The Autobiography of Lincoln Steffens. New York: Harcourt-Brace.Google Scholar
TUCHMAN, G. (1973) “Making News by Doing Work: Routinizing the Unexpected,” 79 American Journal of Sociology 110.Google Scholar
TUCKER, L. and C., LEWIS (1973) “A Reliability Coefficient for Maximum Likelihood Factor Analysis,” 38 Psychometrika 1.Google Scholar
U.S. BUREAU OF THE CENSUS (1980) Statistical Abstract of the United States, 101st Ed. Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office.Google Scholar
WILSON, J.Q. (1975) Thinking about Crime. New York: Basic Books.Google Scholar