Gender,Fear of Crime,and Attitudes Toward Prisoners Among Social Work Majors in a Hong Kong University

Abstract

Fear of crime has been a dominant area of criminological inquiry, yet it is has been examined only recently in a Chinese context, and it is virtually unexplored in Hong Kong. Using a sample of 170 Hong Kong college students majoring in social work, the current study aimed to investigate the effects of gender on fear of crime and their relationships to attitudes toward prisoners. In general, women reported a significantly greater fear of crime than men for all offenses except for being cheated. Fear of rape/sexual assault was found to be a significant predictor of fear of serious crimes for women but a less significant predictor of their fear of minor crimes. The shadow of the sexual assault hypothesis was supported in this study. Fear of crime had little impact on attitudes toward prisoners.

Keywords

gender fear of crime attitudes toward prisoners social work majors Hong Kong Chinese

Introduction

The study of fear of crime has been such a focus for academics in the past half century that Hale (1996) described it as having “[become] a distinct sub-discipline within criminology which may be studied independently of crime itself” (p. 131). Since it began in the 1960s, much research has devoted attention to this topic. But that research has derived from and has continued to be mainly focused on western countries, in particular the United States (for a genealogy of the study of the fear of crime, see Lee, 2001). It is only very recently that there has been a greater interest in examining different aspects of fear of crime in a Chinese context (e.g., Liu, Messner, Zhang, & Zhou, 2009; Yun, Kercher, & Swindell, 2010; Zhang, Messner, Liu, & Zhuo, 2009; Zhong, 2010). It has remained unexplored in one of Asia’s prominent cities, Hong Kong. Perhaps this omission is due to the perception of Hong Kong as one of the safest cities in the world.

Hong Kong considers itself a secure society, “with a low crime rate and good social order” (Security Bureau, 2009). It enjoys one of the lowest crime rates in the developed world according to official statistics and victimization surveys (Broadhurst, Bacon-Shone, Bouhours, Lee, & Zhong, 2010; Broadhurst, Lee, & Chan, 2008). The crime rate in Hong Kong was only 1,108.4 per 100,000 and 1,075.8 per 100,000 in 2009 and 2010, respectively (Hong Kong Police Force, 2011), and the victimization rates of common crimes are much lower than the international average¹ (Broadhurst et al., 2010). Where crime is more of an issue has been in cases of female sexual victimization, where the victimization rate is close to the international average as reported by the United Nations International Crime Victim Survey (UNICVS). As might be expected, young women in Hong Kong are more likely to be victims of sexual assaults, and women in general experience more theft, particularly purse-snatching, compared with Hong Kong males (Broadhurst et al., 2010). Still, Hong Kong is considered a relatively safe place by all accounts. More than 90% of residents in Hong Kong reported that they feel either “fairly safe” or “very safe” walking alone after dark in their own neighborhoods (Broadhurst et al., 2008). Given this, it is surprising that Hong Kong possesses a high conviction and imprisonment rate (Broadhurst, 2000; Grossman, 2009). The prison rates in Hong Kong rank fourth among Asian countries and are higher than those of many western nations such as Canada and Australia (Broadhurst, 2000).

Why is it that the residents of Hong Kong perceive themselves to be safe from crime yet still implicitly accept the government’s tough on crime approach? Are they truly fear-free with regard to crime? The measurement of feelings of safety shown above has been regarded as inadequate in capturing fear of crime, as the question never directly asks about crime (Chadee & Ditton, 2003; Ferraro & LaGrange, 1987, 1992). In other words, the conclusion of how one feels about walking alone after dark may be derived from considerations other than crime. The present study seeks to remedy this by asking about how afraid someone is of specific offenses. Such questions elicit an emotional (fear) and cognitive (risk assessment) response, which can properly address the fear of crime (Ferraro & LaGrange, 1987).

Studying fear of crime is important because the fear of crime itself is regarded as a social and political problem (Hale, 1996; Jackson, 2009). Anxieties about crime may force individuals to limit their behaviors, such as by taking extra precautions (Jackson, 2006; Jennings, Gover, & Pudrzynska, 2007). Also, it may adversely affect people’s mental and physical health (Jackson & Stafford, 2009). In particular for women, it has been said that fear of crime reflects the patriarchal constraints of acceptable female behavior (Madriz, 1997; Stanko, 1997). Such fear may deteriorate a community’s sense of trust (Jackson, 2006) and may lead politicians to adopt a law and order agenda (Warr, 2000). Thus, examining fear of crime can provide insights as to why Hong Kong is so punitive toward criminals regardless of its low crime and victimization rate.

The present study aims to add results from Hong Kong to the growing fear of crime literature and to add to the inquiry a different dimension that has never been addressed along with the fear of crime—attitudes toward prisoners (Melvin, Grambling, & Gardner, 1985). The students chosen to participate in the study were all social work majors, and this dimension was included to more accurately capture the challenges that social work majors will face in their careers. Previous studies using student samples tended to involve criminal justice majors (Miller, Tewksbury, & Hensley, 2004; Vandiver & Giacopassi, 1997) because they were seen as future practitioners who should possess a realistic perception of criminal issues. To the best of our knowledge, only one previous study (Lambert, Pasupuleti, & Allen, 2005) recruited social work majors to measure their views toward the treatment of criminal offenders. The same line of reasoning is used in the present study, as social work majors are future practitioners in areas of treatment and aiding individuals. Many of them will likely work in the numerous organizations in Hong Kong that deal with delinquents and ex-offenders as well as with victims of crime, and engage in crime-prevention work.

The Society for Rehabilitation and Crime Prevention, Hong Kong (SRCAP, 2011), the Hong Kong Federation of Youth Groups (HKFYG, 2010), and the Tung Wah Group of Hospitals (TWGH, 2011) are three examples of major nongovernmental organizations that use social workers to work with offenders, drug abusers, prisoners, and victims. Their services include counseling, education in crime prevention, and assistance for offenders and victims. Other organizations focus other forms of outreach and drug rehabilitation. As well, the Social Welfare Department plays an integral role in the criminal justice system, being responsible for supervising offenders who are put on probation orders and the community service orders, and providing counseling services for victims of crime (Chui, 2008; Lee, 2009).

Gender and Fear of Crime

The relationship of gender to fear of crime has perhaps been the most dominant area of analysis for fear of crime researchers (Ditton & Farrall, 2000). It has long been documented that women exhibit more fear of victimization and crime than their male counterparts, despite the fact that they are less likely to be actual victims of crime (sexual assault being the exception); this difference has been termed the fear-of-crime paradox (Cops & Pleysier, 2011; Haynie, 1998; Smith & Torstensson, 1997; Young, 1992). Different explanations have been put forth to explain this apparent paradox.

One perspective contends that women have a higher perception of personal vulnerability because they are less able to defend themselves against (typically male) perpetrators (Hollander, 2001; Jackson, 2009; Killias, 1990; Killias & Clerici, 2000; Smith & Torstensson, 1997). Their weaker physical status makes them less resistant to attacks, thus resulting in amplified fear. Researchers measuring the differences of fear of crime among male and female populations have supported this view. For example, Fetchenhauer and Buunk (2005) showed that women were significantly more fearful than men when presented with scenarios (both criminal and noncriminal events) resulting in physical injury. The study by Liu and colleagues (2009) extended vulnerability into the Chinese context and found that Chinese women considered themselves to be more vulnerable and had higher levels of fear than Chinese men. A drawback of this study, however, was the question used to measure fear of crime. As the above, the study’s only measure of fear of crime asked respondents how safe they felt walking out at night. As noted, such questions have been repeatedly criticized as eliciting a response about crime and not precisely asking about crime itself (Chadee & Ditton, 2003; Ferraro & LaGrange, 1987, 1992).

Some works have accredited the paradox to men downplaying their fears because of their masculinity (Goodey, 1997; Sutton & Farrall, 2005). Other studies, however, have blurred the simple categorization of fearful women and fearless men. In a recent study, Cops and Pleysier (2011) found that those who reported more feminine attitudes and activities were more fearful of crime than those who reported a higher masculine identity in spite of the respondents being male or female. Furthermore, Gilchrist, Bannister, Ditton, and Farrall (1998) stressed that “There are perhaps more similarities than differences between both high fear men and high fear women, and between low fear men and low fear women” (p. 295). Physical harm from various offenses may be a better predictor of fear for both men and women, although when controlling for sexual assault, women were still more afraid (Lane & Meeker, 2003). Day, Stump, and Carreon (2003), in interviews with male undergraduates, found that in circumstances where traditional masculinity, such as control, aggression, and physical strength, were challenged, there was a heightened fear of crime. Other studies such as that by May, Rader, and Goodrum (2010) examined situations in which men’s fear of crime may be increased. Being a victim of a property crime and having been sexually assaulted was a strong predictor of fear for men in their study.

A more prevalent explanation of women’s higher fear of crime is the fear of sexual assault operating as a “master offense” that may lead to fear of other crimes (Ferraro, 1995, 1996; Warr, 1984, 1985). Women’s association of being sexually assaulted with other crimes led Ferraro (1996) to observe that “[S]exual assault may ‘shadow’ other types of victimization among women . . . heightening fear reactions for other offenses” (p. 669). This means that fear of sexual assault acts as a contemporaneous offense where women are likely to believe that other types of victimization would include sexual victimization (Ferraro, 1995, 1996; Warr, 1984, 1985). For example, burglaries may be associated with sexual assault because women may believe that they will get raped during the commission of a burglary. This explanation is known as the “shadow of sexual assault hypothesis.” Warr’s (1985) early study of residents’ attitudes in Seattle revealed that the fear of rape significantly correlates with other personal offenses, especially those involving the potential use of violence such as fear of being assaulted with a weapon, burglary while at home, and murder. Support for the shadow hypothesis was found in subsequent studies from the general public and college samples (Ferraro, 1995, 1996; Fisher & Sloan, 2003; Hilinski, 2009; Lane & Meeker, 2003; May, 2001; Wilcox, Jordan, & Pritchard, 2006).

Empirical research using college samples have constantly supported the shadow of sexual assault hypothesis (Dobbs, Waid, & Shelley, 2009; Fisher & Sloan, 2003; Hilinski, 2009; Wilcox et al., 2006). For instance, Fisher and Sloan’s (2003) national sample of American colleges found that the fear of rape/sexual assault significantly predicted fear of other offenses, including theft, robbery, and assault (both simple assault and aggravated assault). In a similar vein, Dobbs et al.’s (2009) inquiry of three college campuses revealed that after controlling for fear of rape, there were no differences in fear between women and men for fear of other types of crimes. A possible reason why college student bodies have been relied on to test the shadow hypothesis is because college women are found to be more likely than the general public to be victims of rape and sexual assault (DeKeseredy & Kelly, 1993; Fisher, Sloan, Cullen, & Lu, 1998). Fisher et al. (1998) noted that the frequent and close interactions between female and male students in various activities across campus would increase these women’s chances of being sexually victimized compared with young women in the general population. Although campuses in Hong Kong have never really been considered unsafe, and the propensity for sexual harassments and sexual coercions against female students is quite low in Hong Kong compared with the United States (Tang, Yik, Cheung, Choi, & Au, 1996), students’ fears should not be disregarded. As mentioned, fear itself has adverse effects. The daily frequencies of interaction between male and female students, taking night classes or staying late on campus, and the general openness of campuses where strangers can freely enter may enhance the fear in female students (and staff) and increase their risk of victimization.

Related to this, it has also been suggested that women’s fear of crime stems largely from a general fear of men (Stanko, 1995) and a fear of strangers, as women have been found to be particularly frightened when they are followed by those they do not know or when they receive obscene phone calls (Scott, 2003). These fears have been found to develop from women’s stereotypical images of crime where strangers of low-economic status randomly prey on innocent middle-class women (Madriz, 1997). Regarding fear of rape, women report a higher level of fear of stranger rape despite studies showing that most rapes are perpetrated by an acquaintance of the victim (Hickman & Muehlenhard, 1997). Through telephone surveys with a college sample in a southeastern university in the United States, Wilcox et al. (2006) tested the shadow hypothesis using fear of sexual assault perpetrated by a stranger and fear of sexual assault perpetrated by an acquaintance with those of other offenses. While the authors concluded that both stranger-perpetrated and acquaintance-perpetrated sexual assault “shadowed” the fears of other crimes, they discovered that fear of stranger-perpetrated sexual assault most strongly led to a higher fear of other stranger-perpetuated crimes.

Punitive Attitudes, Fear, and College Students

The extant literature indicated some correlation between fear and attitudes toward punishment (Keil & Vito, 1991; Klama & Egan, 2011; Langworthy & Whitehead, 1986). For instance, the more that someone feared crime, the more he or she would view sentencing as more lenient according to one study (Sprott & Doob, 1997). This is not surprising as one could surmise that those who fear crime would endorse harsher punishment against law breakers. Other studies, however, have shown no relationship between fear and punitiveness (Ouimet & Coyle, 1991; Wanner & Caputo, 1987). Using a college sample and measuring their attitudes toward the police, courts, and punishment over 4 years of college, Dull and Wint (1997) concluded that those who had not experienced victimization were much more positive toward the police and a little more toward the courts, although their favorable view had decreased after their senior year compared with their freshman year. Neither victims nor nonvictims had any differences in their views toward punishment, in this case, measured as the support for the death penalty.

As noted above, college students have been favored in many studies measuring punitive attitudes, particularly criminal justice majors who were viewed as future practitioners in the criminal justice field (e.g., Miller et al., 2004; Vandiver & Giacopassi, 1997). It has been found that criminal justice majors possessed greater punitive attitudes toward offenders compared with other majors (Mackey & Courtright, 2000). Rehabilitation, a long considered goal of sentencing, which is related to the treatment of prisoners, did not differ greatly among criminal justice majors and other majors (Mackey, Courtright, & Packard, 2006). Social work majors, however, were found to have much higher support for rehabilitative programs and much less support for punitive measures than nonsocial work majors (Lambert et al., 2005). Given that future social work practitioners may work in the numerous organizations that provide services for delinquents and offenders, the present study seeks to explore whether their fear of crime will have any adverse effect on attitudes toward prisoners. Previous works have only examined the relationship between fear of crime and punitiveness. Although previous studies have added to our understanding, attitudes toward prisoners may produce very different results. Punitive attitudes and attitudes toward criminals are not the same. Advocating for punishment does not necessarily mean negative perceptions of criminals. For example, one could call for harsher penalties while believing that offenders are redeemable (Maruna & King, 2009), and one could perceive criminals as dangerous but still maintain the rehabilitative ideal (Hirschfield & Piquero, 2010).

Method

A total of 170 participants (77 men, 92 women, and 1 who did not specify his or her gender) were recruited for this study. The sample consisted of social work majors from a local university in Hong Kong. Participants were between 18 and 48 years old (M = 21.94; SD = 4.07). All of them participated in this study on a voluntary basis. Informed consent was obtained prior to administration of the questionnaire. There were no incentives given for participation. A convenience sampling was used so the completion of the surveys depended on who was present at the time of the survey administration and who volunteered to participate.

The Fear of Crime Scale (LaGrange & Ferraro, 1989) is a 10-item scale that is rated on a 10-point Likert-type scale that measured how afraid someone is of being a victim of different kinds of crimes, ranging from 1 = not afraid at all to 10 = very afraid. The question of “how afraid” the participant is involves an emotional measurement of fear and a cognitive measurement of risk (Ferraro & LaGrange, 1987). This is a more accurate measurement of fear of crime than those used by numerous other studies that seeks a response to the fear of crime by asking about how safe one feels about walking alone in the dark. Such questions aim to draw out a response toward crime without directly asking about it. The items of the Fear of Crime Scale are presented in Table 2.

The Fear of Crime Scale has not been validated in Hong Kong; thus, prior to any analysis, a set of validation procedures was performed. The item of “having your car stolen” was removed because not many college students in Hong Kong own a car. The Kaiser–Meyer–Olkin (KMO) and Bartlett’s Test of Sphericity were performed to see if the original factor structure could be used in this study. The KMO value of the eight items was .85 and Bartlett’s Test of Sphericity was significant (p < .001), suggesting that these items were factorable. Thus, a principal components analysis (with varimax rotation) was conducted. Using the criteria of Cattell’s scree plot, two dimensions were found, each with an eigenvalue exceeding 1, which could explain 46.01% and 26.02% of the variance, respectively. Factor I contained six items (3, 4, 5, 6, 7, and 9) relating to crimes that were more serious in nature, most of which involved a high degree of physical violence and harsher penalties in law, and was named fear of serious offenses. Factor II contained three items (1, 2, and 10) relating to the fear of offenses that were much less serious and was named fear of minor offenses. One item, fear of being approached by a beggar or panhandler, may not even be said to be a crime. The overall alpha of the remaining nine items was .898 (see Table 1 for the finalized factor structure).

Table 1.

Factor Loadings of the Finalized Fear of Crime Structure.

Items	Factor loadings
Items	Fear of serious offenses	Fear of minor offenses
Being murdered	.896
Being attacked by someone with a weapon	.850
Being raped or sexually assaulted	.844
Having someone break into your home while you are there	.821
Being robbed or mugged on the street	.737
Having someone break into your home while you are away	.678
Being cheated, conned, or swindled out of your money		.850
Being approached on the street by a beggar or a panhandler		.827
Having your property damaged by vandals		.637

The Attitudes Toward Prisoners (ATP) Scale (Melvin et al., 1985) was also used to measure a general attitude toward prisoners. Given the limited length of this article, all items will not be listed. The scale contains 36 items with positive and negative statements with regard to prisoners. Items include the following: “Only a few prisoners are really dangerous, prisoners have feelings like the rest of us, most prisoners have the capacity for love” and “prisoners are different from most people, prisoners never change, and you have to be constantly on your guard with prisoners.” Participants were asked to rate these items on a 5-point Likert-type scale, ranging from 1 = strongly disagree to 5 = strongly agree. Exploratory factor analysis was used to investigate the factor structure of the scale. It specified four underlying factors (i.e., perceived bad character, empathy, prisoners as normal, and negative perception of interaction). Reported alphas for the various subscales ranged from .68 to .87.

Results

Gender Differences

Sets of independents sample t tests were performed to investigate whether there were any gender differences in the various fears of crime items. Mean and standard deviations of each item for the whole sample and by sex are presented in Table 2. Consistent with the extant literature (e.g., Fisher & Sloan, 2003; Hilinski, 2009), there were statistically significant differences between males and females. Both males and females were least afraid of being approached by a beggar or panhandler (M = 3.77; SD = 2.43), while both groups were most afraid of being murdered (M = 7.62; SD = 3.22). The participants in our sample feared various offenses in accordance with the seriousness of the crimes. This was the same for the men and women individual groups as well. The largest differences between men and women were of offenses most serious in nature. For instance, the women were more afraid of being murdered (M = 8.20; SD = 2.75) than the men (M = 6.94; SD = 3.62) and more fearful of having someone break into their home while they are there (M = 7.21; SD = 2.43) compared with the males (M = 5.34; SD = 3.07). It was found that the females (M = 5.40; SD = 2.50) showed significantly greater fear of all crimes except for fear of “being cheated, conned, or swindled out of your money” (Item 2) compared with the males in our sample (M = 5.00; SD = 2.57). For this item, there were no significant differences between the two groups.

Table 2.

Mean Differences for the Fear of Crime Item Scores by Sex.

M (SD)	All (N = 170)	By sex
M (SD)	All (N = 170)	Male (n = 77)	Female (n = 92)
Being approached on the street by a beggar or panhandler	3.77 (2.43)	3.30 (2.46)	4.20** (2.36)
Being cheated, conned, or swindled out of your money	5.22 (2.53)	5.00 (2.57)	5.40 (2.50)
Having someone break into your home while you are away	5.70 (2.63)	5.03 (2.77)	6.23** (2.46)
Having someone break into your home while you are there	6.37 (2.86)	5.34 (3.07)	7.21** (2.43)
Being raped or sexually assaulted	7.19 (3.41)	5.70 (3.76)	8.41** (2.55)
Being murdered	7.62 (3.22)	6.94 (3.62)	8.20** (2.75)
Being attacked by someone with a weapon	6.92 (2.90)	6.34 (3.22)	7.39* (2.55)
Being robbed or mugged on the street	5.99 (2.61)	5.30 (2.73)	6.61** (2.34)
Having your property damaged by vandals	5.30 (2.50)	4.78 (2.51)	5.70* (2.48)

p < .05. **p < .01.

Shadow of Sexual Assault

To test the shadow of sexual assault in our sample, linear regressions were performed to determine whether the fear of rape/sexual assault predicted fear for the other crimes (see Table 3). Here, the sum of the fear of the other offenses, excluding the fear of rape/sexual assault (Item 3), was used as the dependent variable whereas the fear of rape/sexual assault was the independent variable. No significance was found for gender (both males and females). But when controlling for females only, fear of rape/sexual assault was a strong predictor for fear of the other crimes (p < .001). Looking at fear of serious offenses only (Factor I), fear of rape/sexual assault was found to be a significant predictor (p < .001). Fear of rape/sexual assault was also found to be a predictor for fear of minor offenses (Factor II) but less significantly (p < .05).

Table 3.

The Fear of Rape/Sexual Assault as a Predictor for Fear of Other Crimes.

	b	SE
Gender	−0.25	1.83
Female	3.80	0.45***
Serious crimes	0.53	0.13***
Minor crimes	0.57	0.24*

p < .05. ***p < .001.

Correlation Between Fear of Crime and Attitudes Toward Prisoners

To test the potential relationship between fear of crime and attitudes toward prisoners, a bivariate correlation analysis between the fear of crime subscales and the various ATP subscales was performed. Whereas the fear of minor offenses (Factor II) items correlate positively with two of the ATP subscales (i.e., perceived bad characters and negative perception of interaction), fear of serious offenses (Factor I) did not have any significant correlation with any of the ATP subscales. The results are presented in Table 4.

Table 4.

Correlations Among Fear of Crime Scores and Subscale Scores of the ATP Scale.

	1.	2.	3.	4.	5.	6.
Fear of serious offenses	—
Fear of minor offenses	.50**	—
Perceived bad characters	.01	.24**	—
Prisoners as normal	−.00	−.04	−.49**	—
Empathy	−.12	−.11	−.50**	.62**	—
Negative perception of interactions	.05	.15*	.61**	−.38**	−.36**	—

Note: ATP = Attitude Toward Prisoners.

p < .05. **p < .01.

Discussion and Conclusion

The present study aimed to examine the fear of crime in Hong Kong, which previously has only been given limited attention despite the growth of fear of crime literature. Unlike previous works, a sample of prospective social workers was used, and the measurement of attitudes toward prisoners was added. In general, consistent with the literature, women in our sample reported higher levels of fear in virtually all aspects of crime. The fear of being raped/sexually assaulted was a prime concern for the women in our study, with more than 80% scoring this fear in the upper echelon of our scale.

The only item where there was no significant difference between men and women was the fear of being cheated, conned, or swindled out of money. This item was ranked relatively low for both groups (second to last). It may be interpreted that this offense is not regarded as important for our respondents, thus explaining the low fears toward it. In the Chinese context, crimes that involve fraud or improper payments are more “socially acceptable” as they are viewed as a form of maintaining interpersonal relationships (or guanxi; Brody & Luo, 2009). This way of losing money, that is, being conned or swindled, is not regarded with as much distaste as compared with western culture. In addition, for women, this may be an offense that is more guardable for them. Whereas most other offenses could entail the offender overpowering them, even for beggars who approach them without their consent, being cheated out of one’s money is a crime consisting of deception and not physical force. Perhaps college students view themselves as intelligent enough not to fall for these types of deception.

To help explain the gender differences in fear of crime found in our sample, we tested the shadow of sexual assault hypothesis. In general, our results confirm the hypothesis; the fear of rape/sexual assault “shadowed” fear of other crimes. Not surprisingly, fear of rape/sexual assault was a significant predictor of fear of other crimes. Many offenses, including murder, robbery, and being attacked with a weapon, involves physical confrontation. For women, these crimes are often perceived as likely to be accompanied by sexual assault.

Fear of crime is important because such fears may have adverse effects by limiting college students’ experiences, especially leading female students to constrain their behaviors (Jennings et al., 2007). For instance, female students may be reluctant to enrol in night classes (McCreedy & Dennis, 1996) and may take defensive and avoidance measures (Rader, Cossman, & Allison, 2009). Universities in turn have placed more focus on campus safety talks, but these have been viewed as promoting more constrained behavior among women (Day, 1994). For Hong Kong, however, the alleviation of fears cannot be restricted to campuses only. Hong Kong is a densely populated area where most college campuses are located in urban areas, often next to various public transportation stops. With residential space a premium, many students have to live outside campus. Members of the public can easily travel in and out of campuses in Hong Kong. Hence, the reduction of the fear of crime must be a citywide effort. Also, Hong Kong colleges and universities should make a stronger effort to educate its students in sexual assault awareness (including verbal abuse and indecent assault) as this has been found to be low among Hong Kong student populations (Tang et al., 1996).

Fear of crime in our data showed little relationship to attitudes toward prisoners. Fear of minor offenses correlated only with the two negative ATP subscales of perceived bad characters (i.e., prisoners are bad in nature) and the perception of negative interaction. These offenses mainly involve strangers, as opposed to crimes such as murder or rape, which are often committed by people known to the victim. Therefore, the respondents may believe that only strangers commit these offenses (such as panhandling and vandalizing) and have associated them with negative perceptions of prisoners. Moreover, two items, being approached by beggars/panhandlers and being cheated, do involve some verbal interactions. It takes time and a degree of interaction to beg someone for money or to con them out of it, whereas in robbery or assault the action itself is normally swift, thus likely leading to higher levels of negative perception of interaction with prisoners. Another possible reason for the lack of correlation between fear of serious offenses and attitudes toward prisoners may be due to our sample. Social work majors are trained to work with deviants and offenders in their future practice and may have a more positive outlook toward prisoners. Future research should compare results of students majoring in different disciplines.

Given the small sample of the present study, it is difficult to make generalizations. Overall, our findings indicate a support for the shadow of sexual assault hypothesis among women and suggest that fear of crime does not influence more punitive or negative attitudes toward more serious offenders, that is, prisoners. What this study does is mark a preliminary step into bringing the fear of crime study into Hong Kong. Social work majors, although seemingly a unique group, do reflect the views of the public. This is because college students in Hong Kong generally do not restrict themselves to the college campus because transportation is so convenient in this densely populated city and spaces for student residents are limited. Social work majors are also often in placements, which require them to work with various groups and people within the community. Further research can recruit a more diverse sample and further test measures of vulnerability and constrained behaviors in a Chinese setting.

Footnotes

Acknowledgements

The authors gratefully acknowledge the three anonymous reviewers for their helpful and constructive comments on earlier versions of this article.

Declaration of Conflicting Interests

The authors declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

Funding

The authors received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

Notes

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