Postvictimization Fear of Crime

Abstract

Many relatively mundane forms of victimization have attracted little research attention. This study concentrates on the differential effect of contact and noncontact victimization on people's fear of crime and perceptions of their social and physical environment. Results are based on a survey carried out among 440 respondents in four neighborhoods in two medium-sized Dutch cities. Contrary to expectations, victims of burglary did not seem to have developed strong negative feelings toward their homes and their neighborhoods. On some measures, differences were found between victims of contact crime and nonvictims or noncontact victims, but no indication was found of a clearly identifiable victimization syndrome. It is suggested that one reason for equivocal results in the literature may be a failure to distinguish primary and secondary effects of victimization.

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