Routine activities and fear of crime: Specifying individual-level mechanisms
| Published date | 01 March 2012 |
| DOI | 10.1177/1477370811421648 |
| Date | 01 March 2012 |
| Author | Amanda Bolton,Andres F. Rengifo |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
European Journal of Criminology
9(2) 99 –119
© The Author(s) 2012
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DOI: 10.1177/1477370811421648
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Routine activities and fear
of crime: Specifying
individual-level mechanisms
Andres F. Rengifo
Rutgers University, USA
Amanda Bolton
University of Missouri, USA
Abstract
Studies have examined individual-level associations between fear of crime and various environmental
and cognitive assessments but have largely dismissed the relationship between various dimensions
of fear and broad behavioural adaptations. Drawing on the risk interpretation model, we specify
path models to assess the nature of relationships between perceptions of risk of crime and
disorder and the patterning of voluntary and compulsory routine activities. We also explore
whether these activities influence the relationship between disorder, risk and fear. Using data
from the 2007–8 British Crime Survey, we find support for the proposed distinction between
types of routine activities. Although we also find that the various manifestations of fear exhibit
different associations with these activities, our models offer marginal support for the proposed
mediating role of behavioural policies.
Keywords
fear of crime, risk interpretation model, routine activities
Introduction
Fear of crime has received considerable attention across a number of disciplines. This
interest has evolved over time from an narrow focus on the computation of prevalence
estimates to a broader set of subjects ranging from the examination of different manifes-
tations of fear (Liska et al., 1988; Moore and Shepherd, 2007) to the specification of
links between covariates across levels of analysis (Rountree and Land, 1996; Taylor et al.,
Corresponding author:
Dr Andres F. Rengifo, School of Criminal Justice, Rutgers University, 123 Washington St, Newark, NJ 07102, USA
Email: arengifo@rutgers.edu
421648EUCXXX10.1177/1477370811421648Rengifo and BoltonEuropean Journal of Criminology
Article
100 European Journal of Criminology 9(2)
1985; Tseloni and Zarafonitou, 2008) and over time (Markowitz et al., 2001; Robinson
et al., 2003). More substantively, the study of fear of crime has also expanded in terms of
more systematic theory construction and theory testing. For example, the conventional
use of opportunity theories to study fear has been supplemented by emerging frame-
works that specify ecological principles (Gibson et al., 2002; Wilcox et al., 2003) or
psychological mechanisms (Farrall et al., 2000; Gabriel and Greve, 2003). Moreover, the
attention to fear of crime remains strong owing to its intersection with central areas of
criminological research including, for example, group threat (Chiricos et al., 1997),
delinquent lifestyles (Melde, 2009), neighbourhood decline (Skogan and Maxfield,
1981; Wikstrom and Dolmen, 2001) and police activity (Ferguson and Mindel, 2007;
Hinkle and Weisburd, 2008).
Despite the importance of these contributions, research has not fully specified the
nature of behavioural adaptations linked to the various manifestations of fear. Assessments
of the likelihood of criminal victimization, for example, may lead persons to reconfigure
some components of their activity spaces, especially those shaped by voluntary decisions
(for example, going out at night) rather than by more structured arrangements (for example,
work, school). Assessments of local environmental conditions such as levels of physical
or social disorder may trigger similar processes of reallocation of leisure and non-leisure
activities in terms of relative frequency, nature and setting of specific activities (Ferraro,
1995).
Although these propositions have been articulated in different ways by a number of
theoretical approaches (for example, Cohen and Felson, 1979; Ferraro, 1995; Skogan,
1990), most studies have largely focused on the specification of the linkages between
specific dimensions of fear and the enactment of discrete preventive measures – for
example, installation of alarms, carrying devices for self-defence. Relatively fewer
studies have associated perceptions of risk of crime and disorder to broadly defined
behaviours or activity spaces. In particular, empirical research has not fully examined
how the configuration of these broadly defined behaviours may shape the long-standing
positive relationship between perceptions of risk of crime and fear of crime and whether
such influence may vary by type of activity space – that is, leisure or voluntary activities
vs. non-leisure or compulsory activities. These are important questions because they are
part of a set of initiatives to better specify the relationship between attitudinal and
behavioural responses to assessments of disorder and other local environmental dangers
(for example, Gabriel and Greve, 2003; Jackson and Gray, 2010) and because they
facilitate the articulation of the fear of crime literature with more general analytical
frameworks such as routine activities theory.
This study addresses this gap in the literature by exploring the extent to which the
general configuration of activity spaces along voluntary and compulsory domains is
shaped by perceptions of risk of crime and disorder. We also assess the mediating role of
these activity spaces in the relationship between the cognitive manifestation of fear of
crime (risk of crime) and the emotional manifestation of fear (worry of criminal victimi-
zation) (Ferraro, 1995) and between these constructs and perceptions of disorder. To
investigate these linkages, we specify a series of path models using individual-level data
from a subsample of the 2007–8 British Crime Survey. This article extends prior research
by testing a more comprehensive model of fear of crime that includes emotional (worry
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