Predicting perceptions of crime: Community residents' recognition and classification of local crime problems
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Author(s)
Schaefer, Lacey
Mazerolle, Lorraine
Griffith University Author(s)
Year published
2018
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In the scholarship of crime prevention, little is understood regarding the prompts for individual observation and classification of local crime problems. Moreover, studies that evaluate individuals’ perceptions of crime tend to emphasise the risk of victimisation rather than the probability of crime controller behaviour. In order to predict whether and how a community resident combats neighbourhood crime and disorder, we first require a greater understanding of how individuals recognise and categorise those same neighbourhood phenomena. To explore these processes, the current project uses large-scale multilevel survey data ...
View more >In the scholarship of crime prevention, little is understood regarding the prompts for individual observation and classification of local crime problems. Moreover, studies that evaluate individuals’ perceptions of crime tend to emphasise the risk of victimisation rather than the probability of crime controller behaviour. In order to predict whether and how a community resident combats neighbourhood crime and disorder, we first require a greater understanding of how individuals recognise and categorise those same neighbourhood phenomena. To explore these processes, the current project uses large-scale multilevel survey data from the Australian Community Capacity Study to test the predictive influence of individual characteristics, local social processes, and suburb features on a resident’s identification and categorisation of minor, moderate, and major neighbourhood crime problems. Results indicate that lived experiences with prior victimisation and interactions with the police, greater frequencies of neighbouring behaviours but lower levels of collective efficacy, socioeconomic disadvantage, and ethnic homogeneity are all associated with a greater likelihood of reporting serious local crime problems.
View less >
View more >In the scholarship of crime prevention, little is understood regarding the prompts for individual observation and classification of local crime problems. Moreover, studies that evaluate individuals’ perceptions of crime tend to emphasise the risk of victimisation rather than the probability of crime controller behaviour. In order to predict whether and how a community resident combats neighbourhood crime and disorder, we first require a greater understanding of how individuals recognise and categorise those same neighbourhood phenomena. To explore these processes, the current project uses large-scale multilevel survey data from the Australian Community Capacity Study to test the predictive influence of individual characteristics, local social processes, and suburb features on a resident’s identification and categorisation of minor, moderate, and major neighbourhood crime problems. Results indicate that lived experiences with prior victimisation and interactions with the police, greater frequencies of neighbouring behaviours but lower levels of collective efficacy, socioeconomic disadvantage, and ethnic homogeneity are all associated with a greater likelihood of reporting serious local crime problems.
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Journal Title
Australian & New Zealand Journal of Criminology
Copyright Statement
Schaefer & Mazerolle, Predicting perceptions of crime: Community residents' recognition and classification of local crime problems Australian and New Zealand Journal of Criminology, Pages 1-21, 2017. © 2017 The Authors. Reprinted by permission of SAGE Publications.
Note
This publication has been entered into Griffith Research Online as an Advanced Online Version.
Subject
Criminology
Causes and prevention of crime
Psychology