Societal gender inequality and the gender gap in safety perceptions: Comparative evidence from the International Crime Victims Survey
| Author | Ntasha Bhardwaj,Robert Apel |
| Published date | 01 July 2022 |
| Date | 01 July 2022 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1177/1477370820919721 |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
https://doi.org/10.1177/1477370820919721
European Journal of Criminology
© The Author(s) 2020
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DOI: 10.1177/1477370820919721
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Societal gender inequality
and the gender gap in
safety perceptions:
Comparative evidence
from the International
Crime Victims Survey
Ntasha Bhardwaj
Rutgers University-Newark, USA
Robert Apel
Rutgers University-Newark, USA
Abstract
This study considers whether societal gender inequality moderates the relationship between
gender and perceptions of personal safety. Pooled 1992–2005 rounds of the International
Crime Victims Survey, comprising more than 285,000 respondents from 75 countries, are used
to estimate multilevel models of safety perceptions, with a cross-level interaction specified
between gender and gender inequality. We find that the gender gap in safety perceptions,
although statistically significant in all countries, is largest in countries exhibiting high gender
equality and smallest in countries with high gender inequality. This is explained entirely by
variation in men’s safety perceptions; male respondents perceive themselves as safer in a
milieu of gender equality, but less safe in a milieu of gender inequality. In contrast, the safety
perceptions of female respondents are uncorrelated with societal gender inequality.
Keywords
Gender, gender inequality, safety perceptions, fear of crime
Corresponding author:
Ntasha Bhardwaj, School of Criminal Justice, Rutgers University, 123 Washington Street, Newark,
NJ 07102, USA.
Email: ntasha.bhardwaj@rutgers.edu
919721EUC0010.1177/1477370820919721European Journal of CriminologyBhardwaj and Apel
research-article2020
Article
2022, Vol. 19(4) 746–766
Introduction
Research has increasingly focused on the role of gender inequality and its relation to vio-
lence against women. Gender inequality is both ideological and structural. It is defined
ideologically by the beliefs, norms, and values that a society holds about the status and
place of women. Structurally, it can be gauged by women’s access to resources and the
positions they hold in society (Dobash and Dobash, 1979; Yodanis, 2004). Studies suggest
that, when gender equality is high, the power differential between men and women is
diminished. When women have increased access to jobs and political participation, and
their role in society is not restricted based on their gender, this leads to a more egalitarian
status quo (Whaley et al., 2013). However, theorists also note that high levels of gender
equality can be regarded as a threat to male power, generating a backlash that leads to
increased violence toward women in an effort to restore the gender status quo favoring
men (Lauritsen and Heimer, 2008). Despite concerns about such a backlash, it is believed
that in societies with high levels of gender inequality, which are characterized by the
restricted role of women in society, violence against women can be expected to be wide-
spread (Whaley et al., 2013). Elizabeth Stanko (1985) suggests that, in a male-dominated
society, women’s heightened fear of victimization should also be expected. If the extent of
gender inequality can predict levels of violence against women, can these measures pro-
vide us with a window into reported levels of fear?
Research on fear of crime has found that gender is among its most reliable predictors,
with women consistently more fearful of victimization than men (LaGrange and Ferraro,
1989; Lane, 2012). This is despite women’s lower rates of victimization compared to
men.1 Given evidence that women’s victimization is higher in contexts with higher levels
of gender inequality (Miller, 2008; Sanday, 1981), is there also a relationship between
women’s status in society and their levels of fear? Similarly, does men’s status in society
help explain their feelings of fear? Most research theorizes why women’s fear is higher
than men’s, rather than considering why men’s fear is lower, or whether it varies across
place. Moving beyond individual reports of fear of crime, can societal levels of gender
inequality tell us something about the gender gap in fear? Moreover, is this gender gap
as invariant as current research would suggest?
This study uses the International Crime Victims Survey to conceptualize gendered
safety perceptions as a multilevel phenomenon. Pooling data from dozens of countries
and multiple survey rounds, gender is theorized and measured as both an individual- and
a country-level construct. The latter appears in the form of the gender inequality index,
created by the United Nations Development Programme (2010) from indicators of repro-
ductive health, political empowerment, and labor market participation. The objective is
to consider whether and how safety perceptions are gendered to a different degree by the
extent of gender inequality. In the language of the multilevel models employed in the
analysis, a cross-level interaction between gender and gender inequality allows the size
of the gender gap in safety perceptions to vary by societal gender inequality.
Gender gap in fear of crime and perceived safety
Research has consistently demonstrated the existence of a gender gap in perceptions of
safety, fear of victimization, and perceived risk of crime. Since the earliest public
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Bhardwaj and Apel
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