Fear of crime in the capital cities of the former Yugoslav Republics

Although the fear of crime has been the subject of intensive study carried out by criminologists and sociologists in other countries for more than four decades, domestic theoretical and empirical examination of this complex phenomenon is almost nonexistent. The main objectives of this study are determining the prevalence and possible differences in the fear of crime among the residents of major cities of the former Yugoslav republics. The analysis uses data collected as part of the regional research project “The Fear of Crime in Large Cities“. The method of interviewing in households using a specially created questionnaire is applied on a multi-stage random sample of 1977 adult respondents living in urban areas of the cities. By choosing the appropriate questionnaire items, three scales to measure affective, cognitive and behavioral dimensions of the fear of crime and a unified scale of the general construct were made for the purpose of this study. All scales have high internal consistency reliability. The results show that a significant percentage of people who exhibit a high level of the fear of crime are present in all cities, regardless of the size of the dimension tested. Higher prevalence of the fear of crime is determined by measuring the extent of affective and up to a point behavioral dimension, while the prevalence of fear of crime is slightly lower on the level of the cognitive dimension. Statistically significant differences in the level of fear of crime among residents of cities studied are identified on all scales