Premium
BEYOND COMMUNITY: REACTIONS TO CRIME AND DISORDER AMONG INNER‐CITY RESIDENTS
Author(s) -
CARVALHO IRENE,
LEWIS DAN A.
Publication year - 2003
Publication title -
criminology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 3.467
H-Index - 139
eISSN - 1745-9125
pISSN - 0011-1384
DOI - 10.1111/j.1745-9125.2003.tb01004.x
Subject(s) - disadvantaged , fear of crime , psychology , violent crime , criminology , welfare , psychiatry , social psychology , political science , law
Research on fear of crime has been primarily quantitative, focused mostly on “fear,”“crime,” and “disorder.” Little work has investigated alternative reactions, including “safety,” when crime/disorder are prevalent. With the purpose of exploring reactions to crime and underlying processes, this study applies a grounded theory approach to in‐depth interviews and field observations with a group of 69 disadvantaged urban residents, randomly selected from a sample of Chicago welfare recipients. Results suggest that fear, absent in neighborhoods with incivilities and in many violent areas, is not the prevalent response to local crime/disorder; “cues” other than crime/disorder trigger fears; fear may not be of crime/disorder; and neighborhood problems elicit precautions, which neither influence fear nor “paralyze” respondents. The processes underlying these reactions are discussed.