Inventing Fear Of Crime

The notion of the fear of crime has become as important as crime itself. This book analyses the emergence of the fear of crime as a meaningful concept in both social enquiry and governmental and political discourse particularly in the UK, Australia and New Zealand, and North America.

The Routledge International Handbook on Fear of Crime brings together original and international state of the art contributions of theoretical, empirical, policy-related scholarship on the intersection of perceptions of crime, victimisation, vulnerability and risk. This is timely as fear of crime has now been a focus of scholarly and policy interest for some fifty years and shows little sign of abating. Research on fear of crime is demonstrative of the inter-disciplinarity of criminology, drawing in the disciplines of sociology, psychology, political science, history, cultural studies, gender studies, planning and architecture, philosophy and human geography. This collection draws in many of these interdisciplinary themes. This collections also extends the boundaries of fear of crime research. It does this both methodologically and conceptually, but perhaps more importantly it moves us beyond some of the often repeated debates in this field to focus on novel topics from unique perspectives. The book begins by plotting the history of fear of crime’s development, then moves on to investigate the methodological and theoretical debates that have ensued and the policy transfer that occurred across jurisdictions. Key elements in debates and research on fear of crime concerning gender, race and ethnicity are covered, as are contemporary themes in fear of crime research, such as regulation, security, risk and the fear of terrorism, the mapping of fear of crime and fear of crime beyond urban landscapes. The final sections of the book explore geographies of fear and future and unique directions for this research.

Why is fear of crime so rife in society today? The government and media have ploughed money and resources into surveys and initiatives to find out. As a concept, 'fear of crime' has produced considerable academic debate, and this book brings together a collection of new and cutting edge articles from key scholars in criminology which question the orthodoxy of 'fear of crime' models.

The Routledge International Handbook on Fear of Crime brings together original and international state of the art contributions of theoretical, empirical, policy-related scholarship on the intersection of perceptions of crime, victimisation, vulnerability and risk. This is timely as fear of crime has now been a focus of scholarly and policy interest for some fifty years and shows little sign of abating. Research on fear of crime is demonstrative of the inter-disciplinarity of criminology, drawing in the disciplines of sociology, psychology, political science, history, cultural studies, gender studies, planning and architecture, philosophy and human geography. This collection draws in many of these interdisciplinary themes. This collections also extends the boundaries of fear of crime research. It does this both methodologically and conceptually, but perhaps more importantly it moves us beyond some of the often repeated debates in this field to focus on novel topics from unique perspectives. The book begins by plotting the history of fear of crime’s development, then moves on to investigate the methodological and theoretical debates that have ensued and the policy transfer that occurred across jurisdictions. Key elements in debates and research on fear of crime concerning gender, race and ethnicity are covered, as are contemporary themes in fear of crime research, such as regulation, security, risk and the fear of terrorism, the mapping of fear of crime and fear of crime beyond urban landscapes. The final sections of the book explore geographies of fear and future and unique directions for this research.

In nowadays' globalised society an international exchange of ideas and views is indispensable within the field of social sciences, including criminology and criminal justice studies.

The media continue to have a significant persuasive influence on the public perception of crime, even when the information presented is not reflective of the crime rate or actual crime itself. There have been numerous theoretical studies on fear of crime in the media, but few have considered this from a social psychological perspective. As new media outlets emerge and public dependence on them increases, the need for such awareness has never been greater. This volume lays the foundation for understanding fear of crime from a social psychological perspective in a way that has not yet been systematically presented to the academic world. This volume brings together an international team of experts and scholars to assess the role of fear and the media in everyday life. Chapters take a multidisciplinary approach to psychology, sociology and criminology and explore such topics as dual process theory, construal level theory, public fascination with gangs, and other contemporary issues.

The creative use of fear by news media and social control organizations has produced a "discurse of fear" - the awareness and expection that danger and risk are lurking everywhere. Case studies illustrates how certain organizations and social institutions benefit from the explotation of such fear construction. One social impact is a manipulated public empathy: We now have more "victims" than at any time in our prior history. Another, more troubling resutl is the role we have ceded to law enforcement and punishment: we turn ever more readily to the state and formal control to protect us from what we fear. This book attempts through the marshalling of significant data to interrupt that vicious cycle of fear discourse.