(Re)Assessing contemporary “fear of crime” measures within an Australian context

Abstract

Data collected from residents living in southeast Queensland, Australia (N = 713) are used to replicate a prior evaluation of multiple indicators of “fear of crime.” Results of confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) and structural equation modeling (SEM) support evidence produced from a UK survey that indicators of worry, belief, control, likelihood, and consequences of victimisation demonstrate good scaling properties. Furthermore, current findings suggest that these constructs are theoretically distinct. Finally, residents’ perceptions of the neighbourhoods in which they live are believed to affect attitudes about crime and are consistent with social-psychological models of crime fear. Current findings are discussed in terms of their implications on understanding fear of crime from both an academic and practitioner perspective.