Statistics Canada Paper on Fear of Crime

Statistics Canada released a research paper in July entitled Fear of Crime and the Neighbourhood Context in Canadian Cities:

"Much of the current Canadian research has been aimed at understanding the characteristics of individuals who are at greatest risk of experiencing fear of crime. A consistent finding in this work is that, on average, women and older Canadians report higher levels of fear in local communities ... Other research suggests that women and older people experience higher levels of fear of crime regardless of income, education, or personal experiences of victimization ... "

"More recently, research on American cities suggests that it may also be important to consider the neighbourhood context in attempting to understand patterns of fear of crime in Canada for two reasons. First, some aspects of the social and economic conditions of neighbourhoods may be directly related to individuals’ behaviours and perceptions, regardless of their own personal characteristics ... Second, individuals’ perceptions of the level of crime and 'social disorder' in the neighbourhood, (i.e., perceived signs of 'incivilities' such as prostitution, drug addicts, loitering, vandalism, etc.), may explain variations in levels of fear even after accounting for neighbourhood and individual characteristics ..."

"The aim of this study is to present information about the extent to which fear of crime differs across neighbourhoods in Canadian urban areas, and to assess whether the characteristics of individuals and/or neighbourhoods explain this variation."

The study is part of the Crime and justice research paper series.