Fear of Crime Among Caribbean Women in University: A Qualitative Exploration Using the Free Association Narrative Method

Abstract

Women attending university are generally at a heightened risk of victimization. As such, there is an emerging body of literature exploring fear of crime among them. Although several studies have explored this phenomenon quantitatively, relatively few have investigated fear of crime among this group of women in their own words. Using a sample of women at the University of the West Indies, this study seeks to address this gap. The study reveals strong support for the shadow of sexual assault theory as the women interviewed overwhelmingly describe their fear of crime against the background of their perceived vulnerability to rape.

Keywords

women fear crime sexual assault

Introduction

The level and dynamic nature of crime in the Caribbean provides scholars with fertile ground for criminological analysis. Rates of violent crime by region place the Caribbean among the highest rates in the world (Bergman et al., 2020; Inter American Development Bank, 2017; United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime [UNODC], 2013) due in large part to its association with the trade in illicit drugs (Bailey, 2020; Frederick, 2010; Harriott, 2003a; UNODC/World Bank, 2007). As a result, over the past decade, homicide rates have been increasing steadily. Indeed, increases in homicide have generally been accompanied by increases in other forms of violent crime. H. Sutton and Ruprah (2017) found, for example, that spiraling levels of assault have exceeded that for all other regions globally. Although inadequacies in data collection have characterized the reporting of sexual assault, data have long suggested, too, that rape is an issue of considerable regional concern (Halcon et al., 2003).

Barbados has thus far proven a regional outlier, displaying relatively low levels of violent crime (Bailey, 2016), despite recent increases precipitating national anxiety. Due in part to the absence of organized crime, the homicide rate has remained consistently low albeit with some fluctuations (Ramsay, 2013). In contrast to violent crimes, property crimes in Barbados have remained relatively high with house break-ins, the major area of concern (Bailey, 2016). In Barbados, rape is classified under the category sex-related crimes, and over the past 20 years, it has consistently exceeded all other crimes in this category, with an average rate of 22.4 per 100,000 population (Bailey, 2016). The preceding suggests, therefore, that despite the small size of the country, the criminological context nevertheless provides a useful setting for a range of crime-related interrogations. This article seeks to add to the existing Caribbean data on fear of crime.

Although Caribbean academic scholarship is characterized by groundbreaking work in the field of gender studies (Barriteau, 2001; Leo-Rhynie, 2002; Reddock, 1998), the effects of this tradition have not been seen within the criminological literature (Bailey, 2018). Caribbean crime has been investigated, to a large extent, absent gendered theorizings, with regional research on fear of crime focused primarily on the effect of external factors such as neighborhood and environmental variables (Bailey, 1999; Chadee, 2001; Chadee & Ditton, 2005; Harriott, 2003b), with gendered interrogations receiving little attention. With this in mind, this study utilizes a sample of women at the University of the West Indies in Barbados to address this knowledge gap. Specifically, the study is guided by the following research question:

Research question: How do women attending university talk about their own fear of crime?

Determinants of Fear

Much of the existing research on fear of crime has centered around the notion of perception of risk. Its various conceptualizations have included an emotive response that is directly influenced by ones level of concern for being victimized (Ferraro & LaGrange, 1987; Otis, 2007), as well as the evaluation of the likelihood of an occurrence of a particular type of incident, and one’s concern with the impending implications (Sjoberg et al., 2004). While there is general agreement as to the association between risk perception and fear, within the literature on fear of crime there appears to be a frequent disconnect between perceived risk and the actual threat of victimization (Altheide & Michalowski, 1999; Sjoberg et al., 2004). The degree to which one believes that he or she is likely to be a victim of a crime, therefore, does not necessarily correspond with actual reports of victimization. This is the so called “fear of crime paradox.” Sparks (1992) was one of the first to question the notion of fear being a rational response to the actual probability of being victimized. This disconnect between fear and actual victimizaion can be partially explained by the presence of certain individual, lifestyle, and contextual factors that may result in some individuals perceiving the magnitude of a possible threat as being more insurmountable than in the minds of others.

One important contextual factor that plays a significant role in influencing risk perception and fear of crime is the physical environment. The work of Sampson et al. (1997) was instrumental in demonstrating the propensity for neighborhood characteristics to undermine collective efficacy and result in increased criminal activity. As such, research subjects have commonly noted that their level of anxiety is particularly high when encountering environmental incivilities such as graffiti, or dark, lonely, poorly maintained areas (Little et al., 2005; Vrij & Winkel, 1991). Evidence of neighborhood incivility may reflect deeper problems associated with community decay such that even in the absence of direct experience with victimization, individuals may assume the propensity for criminal activity to be high (Otis, 2007). This may translate to either situational or dispositional fear. Situational fear of crime arises when an individual is fearful of situations such as walking alone at night, living in a crime-prone neighborhood, or talking to strangers (Custers & Van den Bulck, 2011). This assumes particular relevance within the Caribbean where poor, deprived neighborhoods, often the scenes of large-scale criminal activity, are typically beset by incivilities such as derelict buildings and the persistent loitering of young men on the corners of streets and lanes (Gayle, 2009; Harriott, 2003b; Satchell, 2018). When these situations occur repeatedly, the fear may become dispositional (Gabriel & Greve, 2003), which connotes the experience of numerous situations that may inspire fear in individuals, leaving them prone to the acquisition of fear in given circumstances which may occur more intensely.

Perception of risk and fear of crime have also been argued to be affected by one’s experiences with crime, whether through direct or indirect/vicarious victimization. The relationship between fear and victimization is indeed a complex one. Early studies investigating the link between perceived risk and direct victimization often focused on property crime and tended to find no association (Boggs, 1971; Conklin, 1975; Ennis, 1967). However, when researchers began to examine the effects of violent victimization, studies were more likely to reveal an increased perception of risk (Block & Long, 1973; Garofalo, 1977). Contemporary scholarship too has often demonstrated a link between direct victimization and fear of crime, suggesting that it erodes feelings of personal control, thus altering notions of security (Swartz et al., 2011; Tillyer et al., 2011). Others have concluded that the association is weak (Dull & Wint, 1997; Fox et al., 2009), while Pryce et al. (2020) demonstrated that among their sample of U.S. citizens, there was an inverse relationship between victimization risk and fear of crime.

Although no widespread consensus exists as it relates to the effect of direct victimization, there appears to be common agreement, though with some dissension (Fox et al., 2009; Mesch, 2000), that indirect/vicarious victimization is closely related to levels of fear (Ferraro, 1996; Grabner, 1977; Lejune & Alex, 1973; Pryce et al., 2018; Rountree & Land, 1996; Taylor, 1996). Indirect victimization may include witnessing a crime, having a personal relationship with the victim of a crime, or experiencing secondhand accounts of a crime by word-of-mouth or through the media. It, in turn, leads to a fear of crime that may not be supported by official statistics.

Gender and Fear

One of the more consistent findings within fear of crime literature is that women report higher levels of fear than men (Ferraro, 1996; Schafer et al., 2006; R. Sutton & Farrall, 2005). This has been the case across contextual settings (Hilinski et al., 2011). Allen (2006), for example, found that women in Britain were 4% more likely than men to be fearful of burglary. Similarly, Reid and Konrad (2004) found levels of fear among women to be two to three times higher than that reported by men. Pryce et al. (2018) found that among their sample of Kenyan university students, women exhibited greater levels of fear of crime at school, in the community, and overall. Similar results have been reported among research samples in Australia (Borooah & Carach, 1997; Chataway & Hart, 2019) and Asia (Chih-Ping, 2018; Chui et al., 2013).

The widespread empirical agreement that gender has a significant effect on levels of fear is particularly interesting considering that with the exception of rape and sexual assault, women are generally less likely to become victims of crimes than men (Ferraro, 1996; Snedker, 2012). Despite these findings, the conclusion that women are more fearful of crime than men has been challenged on a number of grounds. Some have argued that research findings are influenced by the tendency for men and boys to conceal their fear as a result of societal cues that have told them that it is not manly to be afraid (Smith & Torstensson, 1997). Others have suggested that the primarily quantitative studies that have demonstrated higher levels of fear for women are flawed in that they conflate emotional responses with cognitive assessments of risk. This, they argue, has the effect of hiding nuances that may exist between men and women leading to misleading conclusions (Callahan & Teasdale, 2009).

Theoretical Perspectives

Notwithstanding some disagreement, the common finding that gender is a significant predictor of fear of crime has precipitated a number of theoretical attempts at explaining this phenomenon. Among these explanations, the shadow of sexual assault hypothesis and the shadow of physical harm hypothesis have assumed primary significance.

Shadow of Sexual Assault

The contention that there are certain offenses that one may associate with other types of victimization was first put forward by Warr (1985). He argued that among some potential victims, certain crimes are inextricably linked due to a subjective belief that they either occur together, or that one crime results from the other. These ideas were later expanded by Ferraro (1996) who suggested that for women, sexual assault is a contemporaneous offense to other forms of victimization. This is the shadow of sexual assault hypothesis and it is based on the notion that women are more afraid of crime than men are because many crimes have the propensity to lead to rape. Ferraro concluded that for women, the effect of their concern for sexual assault was even greater than the effect of perceived victimization. Women are considered to be at higher risk of sexual assault; as such, there is a perpetual anxiety among them that affects the manner which they view all other forms of victimization (Hirtenlehner & Farrall, 2013). There is considerable support for this hypothesis within the literature. Primarily quantitative studies have revealed that as a woman’s level of fear of rape increases, so does her fear of other crimes (Dobbs et al., 2009; Fisher & Sloan, 2003). This is particularly true for violent and other forms of personal crimes (Dobbs et al., 2009; Ferraro, 1996), with property crime revealing a weaker relationship (Ferraro, 1995; Lane & Fox, 2013). Rape is a constant concern for women and therefore shapes the way they view crime generally (Hirtenlehner & Farrall, 2013). Despite the common conclusion, however, that this overarching fear of sexual assault is peculiar to women, there is evidence to suggest that men too are susceptible to this phenomenon (Cook & Fox, 2012; Lane & Meeker, 2003). May (2001), for example, found that fear of crime was affected by the fear of sexual assault for both adolescent males and females, suggesting that the perceived ability to resist an attack may be more important than gender.

Shadow of Physical Harm

The notion that for individuals, and in particular, women, fear is affected by how physically vulnerable to an attack they are, is one of the more longstanding arguments to appear in fear of crime literature. Women, as a result of their generally weaker statures when compared with men, may perceive themselves to be more susceptible to physical harm (Lane, 2009; Skogan & Maxfield, 1981). It is believed, therefore, that women worry about being able to prevent a physical attack that may occur during the course of criminal victimization. There is, in fact, recent data suggesting that the focus on sexual assault as a contemporaneous offense has been at the expense of other types of fear, such as that of physical harm (Cook & Fox, 2012; Lane & Meeker, 2003). These studies not only found that fear of physical harm shadowed other forms of victimization, but that it was even more important than fear of sexual assault in explaining fear of certain offenses. This was the case for both males and females, although fear of physical assault mattered more for males.

The Present Study

University students are generally at a heightened risk of victimization as a result of lifestyle characteristics and behaviors that can increase the likelihood of becoming a victim of crime (Fisher & May, 2009; Lee & Hilinski-Rosick, 2012). As a result, there is an emerging body of literature that is aimed at exploring fear of crime among this vulnerable population. Much of this research has focused on sexual assault, and by extension, the manner in which the shadow of sexual assault influences fear, particularly among women. One of the first studies to investigate this phenomenon among American university students was conducted by Fisher and Sloan (2003) and concluded that the shadow of sexual assault significantly affected fear of violent crimes. Subsequent studies among this group lent support to these findings (HIlinski, 2009; Wilcox et al., 2006). While several studies have explored this phenomenon quantitatively, relatively few studies have sought to investigate fear of crime among university students in their own words (examples include Day, 1999; Hilinski et al., 2011; Ross & Rasool, 2019). This is an exploratory article, the aim of which is to add to the relatively small body of literature that provides qualitative insight into this underresearched area.

Method

The aim of this research is to qualitatively explore the manner in which female university students talk about their own fear of crime.

Procedure

Participants were selected from the University of the West Indies. This is the main institution for tertiary-level education on the Island of Barbados. Ethical approval for the conduct of this study was sought from the University Hospital, University of the West Indies and Faculty of Medical Sciences Ethics Committee. In keeping with contemporary guidelines for research, permission to approach the students and to secure their voluntary participation was obtained at multiple levels. Permission was first sought from the Principal of the University of the West Indies Cave Hill Campus. The President of the Guild of Students was then informed of the intention to conduct research among members of the student body.

A random sample of 15 female students was selected for in-depth study. The two university halls of residence were asked to provide a register of all female students in residence to create a composite listing. From this list, 15 students were then randomly selected by lottery for participation in the study. Once students were selected, they were approached by letter for their voluntary participation and asked to sign assent forms before taking part in the study. All 15 students who were approached agreed to participate, with a response rate of 100%. Table 1 shows the relevant demographic data for the selected participants.

Table 1.

Participant Demographic Data.

Number of students	Name (pseudonym)	Age	Country of origin
1	Justina	23	Trinidad & Tobago
2	Abby	21	Bahamas
3	Jennifer	23	Trinidad & Tobago
4	Betsy	21	Dominica
5	Michelle	18	St. Vincent
6	Paula	19	St. Vincent
7	Sarah	20	Trinidad & Tobago
8	Marcia	20	Bahamas
9	Rachel	25	St. Lucia
10	Mary	19	St. Kitts & Nevis
11	Katherine	23	Antigua
12	Lisa	20	Trinidad & Tobago
13	Maxine	18	Bahamas
14	Roxanne	24	St. Lucia
15	Mavis	21	Dominica

Interviews took place at a location mutually acceptable to the participant and interviewer, and took an average of 90 min to complete. Each interview was conducted by a moderator who was accompanied by a trained notetaker.

Free Association Narrative

Using the principles of the free association narrative interview method (FANI), an interview schedule was constructed specifically for this study. Traditional methods of qualitative research, utilizing structured and semi-structured interviews, place the research participant within the confines of a particular wording and order of questioning. Here the interviewer generally adheres to a set schedule and is in full control of the conversation. The narrative method by contrast emphasizes the role of the researcher as a listener, while the participant plays more of a central role in the research process as a storyteller. It is a method of transforming knowing into telling (Mishler, 1986), in which research subjects are “immersed in narrative” by way of a virtually “uninterrupted monologue” (Sandelowski, 1991). The narrative approach therefore emphasizes the responsibility of the research participant to identify the relevance of the story they are telling to the overall research topic. To achieve this objective, I considered asking each participant one question. However, I wanted to give the participant the opportunity to address the issue of fear through the telling of multiple stories, the sum of which would give a clearer picture of the manner in which they interpreted their anxieties about being victimized. To this end, I adopted the Free Association Narrative Interview Method utilized by Hollway and Jefferson (2000) in an attempt to satisfy the research objective.

FANI is closely linked to the principle of Gestalt, introduced by German psychologist, Max Wertheimer, based on the notion that the whole is greater than the sum of its parts (Hollway & Jefferson, 2000). When applied to research, this principle suggests that it is the responsibility of the researcher to extract the whole story by following the concerns of the research subject, not the interviewer. The critical role of the researcher, therefore, is to elicit a narrative not in a traditional structured way, but in a manner that follows the associations of the participant, regardless of where this takes the interview. The narrative, therefore, is structured around the principles of free association in the hope that this will reveal issues and concerns that would remain hidden using traditional methods. The main difference between this method and the narrative approach is that whereas the narrative method is concerned with coherence, the free association method allows the researcher the latitude to guide the conversation. Each question is “narrativised” in such a way that the participant is encouraged to tell a story and thus anchor his or her account to specific events in the past.

The interview schedule consisted of six guiding questions that encouraged the participant to describe the experiences that surrounded a particular event that elicited fear. Question 2, for example, asked the participant to “tell me about a time when you were afraid.” Similarly, Question 5 asked the participant to “. . . describe to me any unsafe situations you have been in since being a student at UWI.” The participants were allowed to answer each question without interruption.

Data Analysis

Quality assurance checks were employed to ensure accurate reading of the data collected. The notetaker was asked to capture verbatim accounts of the discussion and to record nonverbal activity. Communication cues were developed between the moderator and notetaker such that the moderator knew when to employ techniques to slow down the interview, or to ask the participant to repeat what was said. Notes were reviewed immediately following each interview and any gaps in the discussion filled in. Finally, full transcripts were produced by the notetaker as soon as possible with the assistance of the moderator. Coding and analysis were guided by the principle of gestalt. This addresses the decontextualization that is characteristic of many types of qualitative analyses which seek to break up text through an iterative process of coding and recoding. This is a common feature of the “code and retrieve” method that is inherent in computer-assisted data analysis. To prevent this, data were analyzed manually, through the identification and coding of major themes, which emerged from the accumulation of narratives that, as best as possible, represented the context as a whole. Coding and analysis took place simultaneously, and the relevant sections of the data were given the requisite thematic labels. Extensive discussions with the notetaker followed, to ensure a consensus on the findings, interpretations, and conclusions.

Discussion

The resulting analysis revealed the following major themes: (a) feelings of vulnerability, (b) fear of sexual assault, (c) self-protective behavior, and (d) questioning the assumption of homogeneous fear.

Feelings of Vulnerability

Although internationally crime on university campuses is becoming increasingly prevalent (Wasserman & Ellis, 2010), campuses are still assumed by many to be safe spaces for students. Nonetheless, findings from this study indicate that despite none of the participants having reported suffering a physical attack, the women interviewed generally felt vulnerable to crime both on campus and in the surrounding environs. Justina, a 23-year-old student from Trinidad and Tobago described her anxiety.

. . . you’ll be walking to get somewhere and like it’s scary to walk past a group of men. Like even on campus, for example, the workmen. I’ll be walking to class, and they would be, you know, like looking at you, and then they might comment on my hair, or say “good morning beautiful,” and it makes me uncomfortable, because it’s not being said with, like genuine politeness, it’s being said with like an underlying intent almost. Like, I experienced that a lot. Sunday, I was walking back from a friend, and there were some guys playing football on the field, and I was walking on the pavement, and, like, some of them are actually shouting comments about my hair, and when I didn’t pay them any mind, they started to say rude things. Things like that, a series of events very similar to that. You know, name calling, catcalling, makes you really uncomfortable.

Others, like Abby, felt exposed due to a lack of confidence in the ability of the campus security to protect them.

. . . It’s very dangerous. We do have security on campus, but they say they’re vigilant enough to keep you safe, but they’re posted out of position. Security doesn’t normally walk around, so there’s still a chance for violence. We have to be vigilant and aware. It’s dangerous, because there are dark areas. You have to look around, just in case anything occurs. Cause, like I said, security are on specific posts. They aren’t walking around, so anything could still happen. (Abby, 21 years old)

Justina and Abby expressed concerns that were indicative of the general sentiment of the students interviewed. Notwithstanding the fact that they had no direct experience with victimization, the perception of risk among this group of women was high as a result of contextual factors that increased their level of anxiety.

Fear of Sexual Assault

The consistent theme to emerge throughout the discussions was the association between the fear of crime the women interviewed were feeling and their concern for being sexually assaulted. When asked to describe situations in which they felt unsafe, participants generally expressed their vulnerability in terms of how likely they perceived their risk of being sexually victimized to be. The following description of events and the associated emotions were representative of the manner in which some of the women articulated their concerns.

There was actually a time last semester, I took a ZR (bus) to town, and I was on my way back home. The ZR stopped to let in people, and the door was open, and I was sitting. It was basically empty, and the seat next to me was free. A really creepy looking guy was about to get into the front seat, and he sees a seat empty next to me, and he comes to the back, and sits right next to me. So, kinda, feeling a little weird from then, and I stopped off at the grocery store on the way back to campus, and he comes out to the grocery store as well, and he follows me to the grocery store, and he’s actually following me through the lanes and everything. I start to panic a little because, I mean, it’s like a strange coincidence that you come and sit right next to me. If this person follows me out of the grocery, and I’m walking back to the campus, anyone would be afraid of what could happen if a guy assaulted you. I don’t think anybody wants to be raped, or have someone force themselves upon them. I think for all women, like, robbery might come second when a man is following them. I think it is the automatic thing, especially in this climate of, the global climate of women being raped and the whole sexual consent issue and discussion. So, at that point, it was more me being afraid of being raped. And it was relatively early. The light was still outside. I didn’t really consider being robbed. (Jennifer, 23 years old)

The shadow of sexual assault hypothesis was advanced as a means of understanding how women’s fear of being sexually assaulted increases their fear of falling victim to other forms of offending. The fear of other crimes is “shadowed” by the fear of sexual assault, which acts as a core offense upon which all fear is based (Ferraro, 1996; Fisher & Sloan, 2003; Wilcox et al., 2006). According to the theory, therefore, women’s fear of crime is determined by their level of perception that they may be sexually assaulted during the course of other victimizations (Riggs & Cook, 2015). Jennifer’s narrative, however, was indicative not of a fear of sexual victimization as a contemporaneous crime but of a fear rooted exclusively in a concern for her vulnerability to this specific offense. Not only did her fear of being raped override her concern for being the victim of a robbery, but further, she did not consider robbery to be the likely motive of her potential offender in the first place.

By contrast, there were participants whose narratives of fear were more closely aligned with traditional depictions of the shadow of sexual assault whereby rape was seen as a possible and likely consequence of other forms of victimization. These participants demonstrated considerable concern for crimes such as robbery and physical assault, but only as a function of the role these crimes could play in their eventual rape. The following story told by Betsy, a 21-year-old student from Dominica, captured the overall sentiment of this group of women.

There was that time when we came from a pageant, and we came home late. It was around 12, and we got dropped off. When I was inside I realised something wasn’t right, because I heard something scraping on my windows. I was afraid about it, so I told my roommate and then I just decided to shift the curtain, and when I did, I could have sworn I saw somebody standing outside my bedroom window. I thought maybe it was just my mind, but I have grass outside my area, so I heard the dry grass crunching like somebody was walking away. It was really creepy to know that there was in fact a man standing outside my window. And then we called the police that night, but unfortunately, they never showed up. When I first came here, I would hear about little robberies now and then, or someone getting killed, like that robbery they had at the ATM last year. I think that’s where they shot the lady. As a young lady, I am obviously afraid of being robbed or killed. I wouldn’t have been able to defend myself, and then I would have ended up getting raped. That was what I was afraid of.

Michelle, too, described her fear of being robbed as part of an overall larger anxiety over her perceived vulnerability to rape.

. . . I know that there are some people who naturally seem to be thieves, and they’re not really interested in anything else. But I think that some people do things out of spite. So, they might rob you, and just rape you. Or, fear that you would say something about them robbing you. Because I feel like they’re giving you something more to be fearful of. And I realise that a lot of rape victims don’t say anything. So, I’m thinking you’re more likely to talk if it’s just robbery. But, if I rape you, then you have more to be fearful of, and not say anything. (Michelle, 18 years old)

The preceding accounts represent the fears of the majority of students interviewed for this study. In congruence with existing literature on gendered fear of crime (Dobbs et al., 2009; Ferraro, 1996; Hirtenlehner & Farrall, 2013), the majority of women interviewed spoke about their fear against the background of concern for sexual assault. It was evident, therefore, although not in a homogeneous manner, that the narratives of these students provided support for the shadow of sexual assault theory.

Self-Protective Behavior

Self-protective behavior has been identified as a typical response to the fear of (Cook & Fox, 2012) sexual assault (Archer, 2019; Liska & Warner, 1991). This is employed as a means of reducing the likelihood of future victimization and can have the effect of impacting an individual’s mobility, freedom, and opportunities (Stanko, 1992). Strategies typically include either avoidance (e.g., modifying one’s usual movements or routes of travel) or defensive behaviors (e.g., carrying a weapon) (Rader & Haynes, 2014), both of which serve to alter and/or restrict actions to increase feelings of safety. Runyan et al. (2007) found that 47% of American women resisted doing things they needed to do, and 71% resisted doing things they wanted to do, as a result of fear of sexual assault. They also found that women with either direct or indirect knowledge of sexual assault were more likely to believe that such is the threatening nature of their environment, that defensive measures such as carrying a weapon or increasing security at home were necessary. Indeed, it is important to note here that a number of studies have also reported self-protective behaviors to be common among university students in response to their fear (Griffith et al., 2004; Kelly & Torres, 2006; Tewksbury & Mustaine, n.d.). Paula, a 19-year-old student from St. Vincent, described the resentment she felt as a result of the role that her fear of sexual assault played in restricting her mobility.

I actually don’t go to town alone. I wait until I have a friend to go with. I guess it kind of boxes you in, because sometimes, you want to go run your errands, have your own little time. But it’s not exactly safe to be alone. So, it kind of limits you, like, it’s unfair because you can’t go around without being afraid, you know? So, if I’m going somewhere where I know there’s a lot less crime, and I’m probably less likely to be confronted by something like that, I might just say, “ok, I’ll just go.” But if its somewhere like town, I’d definitely go with a friend. So, I kind of have to pick and choose where I go. And I guess I just kind of accept it, because I don’t want to put myself in those situations. It’s unfair, and it’s kind of angering, because we should really be trying to fix the people who are assaulting women, you know? But I guess women kind of have to protect themselves at all costs, and make sure they don’t put themselves in that kind of situation.

Paula felt that her avoidance activities were burdensome and characteristic of a societal tendency for the protection of women from rape to be the sole responsibilty of the women themselves. Feminist scholars have long argued this to be one of the many harmful effects of the threat of sexual assault, as it keeps women fearful and subordinate to their male counterparts (Brownmiller, 1975; Ullman & O’Callaghan, 2018). The thoughts expressed by Jennifer surrounding her own encounter are instructive.

I think I should have not been alone. It’s something my parents always tell me. Always be with someone. And my idea was, maybe if I was uncomfortable, maybe I should have messaged a friend quick to come and meet me, and I could have just hung around the grocery store where there were lots of people instead of leaving by myself and still being afraid and shaken up. I think society kind of brainwashes you that the victim is sometimes wrong, and that they kind of put themselves in that circumstance. So, you should cover all bases, to not, like, be a victim, I guess. Because, if something were to happen to me, people might come back and say it was my fault.

This fear pervades all aspects of women’s lives through prescriptions for dress, speech, and action. Regardless of whether or not a woman has suffered direct victimization, the steps that she is expected to take to avoid assault and harassment suggest a level of culpability if attacked (Culp-Ressler, 2014). Jennifer had internalized this messaging to the extent that she interpreted her potential victimization against the background of a failure to adhere to these behavioral codes.

Questioning the Assumption of Homogenous Fear

The narratives presented thus far have depicted women living in constant fear of their potential victimization. The majority of those interviewed fell into this category. There is, however, a propensity for the binary representation of male and female fear of crime. As stated earlier, that women are more fearful than men is one of the more consistent findings within the criminological literature on fear. The notion that all women are fearful of being victimized has become somewhat of a theoretical axiom. Newburn and Stanko (1994) represent an exception to this norm as they sought to problematize the accepted stereotype that women are afraid and men are not. They argued that to presume social cohesion within gender groups is at best “overly optimistic.” It is important, therefore, to critique these simplistic representations of gendered fear to understand the dynamic and complex nature of women’s relationship with risk perception. Among the women interviewed for this study were those whose narratives were unaligned with traditional assumptions. The following account provides a useful example.

I’m very comfortable with my emotions, whether they be perceived as good or bad. And I don’t necessarily recall my parents talking about fear as much, specifically. But I do know that they’ve taught me to be comfortable with my emotions. So, if I am fearful, I let it pass through me. Maybe as a child, I was very timid, so I was never picked on, I was never bullied, but I saw other persons getting bullied. My dad in particular taught me that even though you might be fearful of the consequences, to speak up and say something. So that’s the one thing I can remember, maybe, that was specifically about fear. But other than that, I never had to necessarily interact with violence. Never necessarily felt the need to fear that. I don’t know if it made me naïve in certain situations, where I don’t feel the fear. But, for example, my dad did not want me to study in Trinidad because of the crime rate. Personally, did not fear going there. Did not fear going to Jamaica, nor did I fear coming here, even though I have never been here before. There have been instances in the past years that I’ve been here whereby people have looked at me like I’m crazy when I say I’m going to walk down the hill, now at eleven at night, or two in the morning. I think it’s partly my personality, and partly what I’ve been exposed to growing up. I’ve not been exposed to many criminal acts, or acts of violence, or any of the sorts that made me think that the world is a bad place, even though I’m very much aware that the world is a bad place. (Sarah, 20 years old)

Similarly, Marcia explained,

I’m kind of an outgoing person, so if anything, I would try to overcome fears, but there isn’t much that I could say that I’m afraid of. On the island (Bahamas), there isn’t much crime, compared to in the cities. You rarely have anything that occurs. But, I guess we didn’t really have anything occur, but there would be more like, um, I guess, sexual assaults between older men and younger kids, because, in the community growing up, I always, I always disliked the fact that older men would try to hit on you, or, throw lines. And you know, I wasn’t really attracted to it, so, it would annoy me constantly. I wasn’t really afraid, because I wouldn’t think that they would do anything to me, because everyone knew my family, and it would lead to a negative reaction if something were to happen to me. The family is well-connected to everyone, knew everyone. I have a lot of uncles, and my mum was very overprotective, and rowdy, so I didn’t feel the need to fear anything.

The notion of the irrationally fearful woman has been traditionally fueled primarily by the apparent discrepancy between women’s actual, and perceived threat of victimization (Lane, 2012; Riger et al., 1978). Feminists have sought to challenge this label by arguing that women’s fear is in fact a rational response to their social and physical vulnerability (Hale, 1993). As stated previously, the theory of the shadow of sexual assault was advanced to explain this vulnerability and the resulting anxiety as it relates to crime. There have been fewer challenges that have sought to question the assumption of homogeneous fear to begin with. As Marcia demonstrates, however, for some women, even the threat of sexual victimization does not translate to the heightened levels of fear that have been commonly ascribed to all women.

. . . older men prey on younger females a lot in the Bahamas. Growing up, I would be by my aunt sometimes after school. Even if just to get my hair braid, or, because at home on the island, I didn’t have a computer or the internet, so I would go by my aunt to use the computer. So, walking back home late at night, by myself, you know, the streets are mainly dark, like I said, you never know. At that time, a lot of guys prey on young females, and you never know if any of them would actually be around. So, I would kind of, be very vigilant, but I wouldn’t say that would be one of my fears. I just didn’t think about it much. I still don’t.

The temptation to pathologize women as passive actors, with limited agency when compared with men has had the effect of reinforcing the problematic image of women as helpless. This has been a common feature of general criminological analyses (Chesney-Lind, 2002; Chesney-Lind & Rodriguez, 1983; Maher, 1997; Widom, 2000). There is evidence from the present study, however, that supports the view of Newburn and Stanko (1994), who challenged the assumption of homogeneity within gender groups as it relates to fear.

Conclusion

Navigating Fear of Sexual Assault

Although none of the women interviewed expressed having been sexually assaulted, all of those who took part in the study, with two exceptions, described their fears against the background of rape. As mentioned earlier, despite considerable quantitative evidence that among women the fear of sexual assault overshadows fear of other crimes, it has been suggested that there is insufficient empirical interrogation into whether or not the fear of physical harm is actually a more important predictor of fear. This study, however, provides strong support for the shadow of sexual assault theory. Some participants expressed fear of this form of victimization exclusively, with little concern for other crimes. This group was distinct from a larger number of women who described their fear of crime generally as the result of the propensity for these crimes to lead to their eventual rape.

The fear of sexual assault led to a range of self-protective behaviors among the students interviewed. The women felt bound by codes of behavior that severely limited their actions in an attempt to protect themselves from victimization. This brings the issue of agency into view. The literature on gender and crime has long grappled with the application of agency to the actions of women. This has been debated primarily as it relates to the gendered motivations for criminal offending. Women’s involvement in crime has typically been theorized as being the result of a limiting of choices due to difficult life circumstances such that they feel compelled to engage in criminal activity (Bailey, 2013; Richie, 1996). In this way, women are depicted as being vulnerable to forces beyond their control and thus void of agency (Bailey, 2020). Similarly, it is argued that the protective behaviors typically employed by women serve to increase their feelings of anxiety and lack of agency. These behaviors reinforce the notion that women are inherently vulnerable and unable to protect themselves if attacked (Hilinski et al., 2011; Tulloch & Jennett, 2001). Indeed, many of the women interviewed resented the actions they had to take to avoid being raped and believed that a failure to employ these strategies would result in them being blamed if victimized. These findings have important implications for policy in that while a focus on encouraging protective behaviors may reduce the risk of victimization, a reduction in fear requires policies targeting root causes of fear (Warr, 2000).

The preceding narratives suggest that female university students in the Caribbean context do not vary greatly in terms of their fear of crime. Nevertheless, it is important to recognize the important finding that not all women talk about their fear in a homogeneous way. The cases of Sarah and Marcia demonstrate that among women there are examples of agency and attitudes toward fear that are unaligned with those commonly ascribed. Given the dearth of Caribbean empirical data on women’s fear of crime, future research should focus on the factors that account for these attitudes in some women and not others. Continued interrogation of this phenomenon is essential for building a comprehensive understanding of women’s fear and developing evidenced-based strategies to address their anxieties.

The accounts presented in this study cannot be deemed to be representative of the crime-related anxieties of all women in Barbados or the Caribbean. This research was based on the testimonies of a relatively small number of participants and was designed to gain valuable insight into the fears of a specific subgroup of women. The Free Association Narrative Method gave these women the opportunity to talk about their own fear of crime by way of unrestricted narratives anchored to past events. The extension of this methodology to the investigation of fear of crime among other subgroups of women would make a significant contribution to an area of scholarship that has been underresearched within the regional context.

Footnotes

Declaration of Conflicting Interests

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

Funding

The author(s) received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

ORCID iD

Corin Bailey

Author Biography

Corin Bailey is a senior research fellow at the Sir Arthur Lewis Institute of Social and Economic Studies at the University of the West Indies, Cave Hill Campus. He is a sociologist with special interest in crime and poverty-related research. His teaching interests include deviance and qualitative research methods.

References

Allen

(2006). Worry about crime in England and Wales: Findings from the 2003/04 and 2004/05 British Crime Survey. Home Office.

Altheide

Michalowski

(1999). Fear in the news: A discourse of control. Sociological Quarterly, 40(3), 475–503.

Archer

(2019). Sexual assault victimization, fear of sexual assault, and self-protective behaviors: A test of general strain theory. Victims & Offenders, 14(4), 387–407.

Bailey

(1999). Intra-urban variations in fear of crime in the Kingston Metropolitan Area [Mona: Unpublished Undergraduate Thesis]. University of the West Indies.

Bailey

(2013). Exploring female motivations for drug smuggling on the island of Barbados. Feminist Criminology, 8(2), 117–141.

Bailey

(2016). Crime and violence in Barbados: IDB series on crime and violence in the Caribbean. Inter American Development Bank.

Bailey

(2018). Introduction. In Joosen

Bailey

(Eds.), Caribbean crime and criminal justice: Impacts of post-colonialism and gender (pp. 1–5). Routledge.

Bailey

(2020). Gendered responses to male offending in Barbados: Patriarchal perceptions and their effect on offender treatment. Routledge.

Barriteau

(2001). The political economy of gender in the twentieth century Caribbean. Palgrave.

10.

Bergman

Seepersad

Safranoff

Cafferatal

(2020). Regional comparative report: Survey of individuals deprived of liberty: Caribbean 2016-2019. Inter American Development Bank.

11.

Block

Long

(1973). Subjective probability of victimization and crime levels: An econometric approach. Criminology, 11, 87–93.

12.

Boggs

(1971). Formal and informal crime control: An exploratory study of urban, suburban, and rural orientations. Sociological Quarterly, 12, 319–327.

13.

Borooah

Carach

(1997). Crime and fear: Evidence from Australia. British Journal of Criminology, 37(4), 635–657.

14.

Brownmiller

(1975). Against our will: Men, women, and rape. Simon & Schuster.

15.

Callahan

Teasdale

(2009). An exploration of gender differences in measurement of fear of crime. Feminist Criminology, 4, 359–376.

16.

Chadee

(2001). Perception on fear of crime and community: A social psychological assessment. Journal of Eastern Caribbean Studies, 26(3), 23–41.

17.

Chadee

Ditton

(2005). Fear of crime and the media: Assessing the lack of relationship. Crime, Media, Culture: An International Journal, 1(3), 322–332.

18.

Chataway

Hart

(2019). A social-psychological process of “fear of crime” for men and women: Revisiting gender differences from a new perspective. Victims & Offenders, 14(2), 143–164.

19.

Chesney-Lind

(2002). Imprisoning women: The unintended victims of mass imprisonment. In Mauer

Chseney-Lind

(Eds.), Invisible punishment: The collateral consequences of mass imprisonment (pp. 79–94). New Press.

20.

Chesney-Lind

Rodriguez

(1983). Women under lock and Key. Prison Journal, 63, 47–65.

21.

Chih-Ping

(2018). Exploring the gender difference in fear of crime among older people. International Journal of Management, Economics & Social Sciences, 7, 26–39.

22.

Chui

Cheng

Wong

(2013). Gender, fear of crime, and attitudes toward prisoners among social work majors in a Hong Kong University. International Journal of Offender Therapy and Comparative Criminology, 57(4), 479–494.

23.

Conklin

(1975). The impact of crime. Macmillan.

24.

Cook

Fox

(2012). Testing the relative importance of contemporaneous offenses: The impacts of fear of sexual assault versus fear of physical harm among men and women. Journal of Criminal Justice, 40, 142–151.

25.

Culp-Ressler

(2014, June 10). All of the things women are supposed to do to prevent rape. Think Progress. https://thinkprogress.org/all-of-the-things-women-are-supposed-to-do-to-prevent-rape-b9365bf520c1/

26.

Custers

Van den Bulck

(2011). Mediators of the association between television viewing and fear of crime: Perceived personal risk and perceived ability to cope. Poetics, 39(2), 107–124.

27.

Day

(1999). Strangers in the night: Women’s fears of sexual assault on urban college campuses. Journal of Architectural and Planning Research, 16, 289–312.

28.

Dobbs

Waid

Shelley

(2009). Explaining fear of crime as fear of rape among college females: An examination of multiple campuses in the United States. International Journal of Social Inquiry, 2(2), 105–122.

29.

Dull

Wint

(1997). Criminal victimization and its effect on fear of crime and justice attitudes. Journal of Interpersonal Violence, 12(5), 748–758.

30.

Ennis

(1967). Criminal victimization in the United States: A report of a national survey. Government Printing Office.

31.

Ferraro

(1995). Fear of crime: Interpreting victimization risk. State University of New York Press.

32.

Ferraro

(1996). Women’s fear of victimization: Shadow of sexual assault? Social Forces, 75, 667–690.

33.

Ferraro

LaGrange

(1987). The measurement of fear of crime. Sociological Inquiry, 57, 70–101.

34.

Fisher

May

(2009). College student’s crime-related fears on campus: Are fear-provoking cues gendered? Journal of Contemporary Criminal Justice, 25, 300–321.

35.

Fisher

Sloan

(2003). Unraveling the fear of victimization among college women: Is the “shadow of sexual assault hypothesis” supported? Justice Quarterly, 20(3), 633–659.

36.

Fox

Nobles

Piquero

(2009). Gender, crime victimization, and fear of crime. Security Journal, 22, 24–39.

37.

Frederick

(2010). The Caribbean is the fragile third border of drug trafficking. Council on Hemispheric Affairs.

38.

Gabriel

Greve

(2003). The psychology of fear of crime: Conceptual and methodological perspectives. British Journal of Criminology, 43, 600–614.

39.

Garofalo

(1977). Public opinion about crime: The attitudes of victims and non-victims in selected cities. Government Printing Office.

40.

Gayle

(2009). Young boys learning to fear, hate, and harm: A recipe for sustaining tribal political violence in Jamaica’s garrisons. IDS Bulletin, 40(1), 53–62.

41.

Grabner

(1977, September). Ideological components in the perception of crime and crime news [Paper presentation]. The 1977 Annual Meeting of the Society for the Study of Social Problems. Chicago, IL, United States.

42.

Griffith

Hueston

Wilson

Moyers

Hart

(2004). Satisfaction with campus police services. College Student Journal, 38(1), 150–156.

43.

Halcon

Robert

Beurhring

Pate

Campbell-Forrester

Venema

(2003). Adolescent health in the Caribbean: A regional portrait. American Journal of Public Health, 93(11), 1851–1857.

44.

Hale

(1993). Fear of crime: A review of the literature. Canterbury Business School, University of Kent.

45.

Harriott

(2003b). The Jamaican crime problem: New developments and new challenges for public policy. In Harriott

(Ed.), Uniderstanding crime in Jamaica: New challenges for public policy (pp. 1–12). University of the West Indies Press.

46.

Harriott

(2003a). Fear of criminal victimization in a reputedly violent environment. Social and Economic Studies, 52, 35–71.

47.

HIlinski

(2009). Fear of crime among college students: A test of the shadow of sexual assault hypothesis. American Journal of Criminal Justice, 34, 84–102.

48.

Hilinski

C. M.

Pentecost Neeson

Andrews

(2011). Explaining the fear of crime among college women, in their own words. Southwest Journal of Criminal Justice, 8(1), 112–127.

49.

Hirtenlehner

Farrall

(2013). Anxieties about modernization, concerns about community, and fear of crime: Testing two related models. International Criminal Justice Review, 23(1), 5–24.

50.

Hollway

Jefferson

(2000). Doing qualitative research differently: Free association, narrative and the interview method. Sage.

51.

Inter American Development Bank. (2017). The costs of crime and violence: New evidence and insights in Latin America and the Caribbean.

52.

Kelly

Torres

(2006). Campus safety: Perceptions and experiences of women students. Journal of College Student Development, 47(1), 20–36.

53.

Lane

(2009). Perceptions of neighborhood problems, fear of crime and resulting behavioral precautions: Comparing institutionalized girls and boys in Florida. Journal of Contemporary Criminal Justice, 25, 264–281.

54.

Lane

(2012). Theoretical explanations for gender differences in fear of crime: Research and prospects. In Renzetti

Miller

Gover

(Eds.), Routledge international handbook of crime and gender studies (pp. 57–67). Routledge.

55.

Lane

Fox

(2013). Fear of property, violent and gang crime: Examining the shadow of sexual assault thesis among male and female offenders. Criminal Justice and Behaviour, 40, 472–496.

56.

Lane

Meeker

(2003). Women’s and men’s fear of gang crimes: Sexual and nonsexual assault as perceptually contemporaneous offenses. Justice Quarterly, 20, 337–371.

57.

Lee

Hilinski-Rosick

(2012). The role of lifestyle and personal characteristics on fear of victimization among university students. American Journal of Criminal Justice, 37, 647–668.

58.

Lejune

Alex

(1973). On being mugged: The event and its aftermath. Urban Life and Culture, 2(3), 259–287.

59.

Leo-Rhynie

(2002). Women in development studies. In Mohammed

(Ed.), Gendered realities: Essays in Caribbean feminist thought (pp. 147–163). University of the West Indies Press.

60.

Liska

Warner

(1991). Functions of crime: A paradoxical process. American Journal of Sociology, 96(6), 1441–1463.

61.

Little

Panelli

Kraack

(2005). Women’s fear of crime: A rural perspective. Journal of Rural Studies, 21, 151–163.

62.

Maher

(1997). Sexed work: Gender race and resistance in a Brooklyn drug market. Clarendon.

63.

May

(2001). The effect of fear of sexual victimization on adolescent fear of crime. Sociological Spectrum, 21, 141–174.

64.

Mesch

(2000). Perceptions of risk, lifestyle activities, and fear of crime. Deviant Behavior, 2(1), 47–62.

65.

Mishler

(1986). Research interviewing: Context and narrative. Harvard University Press.

66.

Newburn

Stanko

(1994). When men are victims. In Newburn

Stanko

(Eds.), Just boys doing business? Men, masculinities and crime (pp. 153–165). Routledge.

67.

Otis

(2007). Perceptions of victimization risk and fear of crime among lesbians and gay men. Journal of Interpersonal Violence, 22, 198–217.

68.

Pryce

Fuller

Brown

VanEaton

(2020). Examining the relationship between citizen contact with the Community Prosecutor and fear of crime. Victim & Offenders, 15(5), 574–593.

69.

Pryce

Wilson

Fuller

(2018). Gender, age, crime victimization, and fear of crime. Security Journal, 31(4), 821–840.

70.

Rader

Haynes

(2014). Avoidance, protective, and weapons behaviors: An examination of constrained behaviors and their impact on concerns about crime. Journal of Crime and Justice, 37(2), 197–213.

71.

Ramsay

(2013). Homicides in Barbados 1980-2010. National Task Force on Crime Prevention.

72.

Reddock

(1998). Feminism and feminist thought: Consensus and controversy. In Mohammed

Shepherd

(Eds.), Gender in Caribbean development (pp. 53–73). Women and Development Studies Project, The University of the West Indies.

73.

Reid

Konrad

(2004). The gender gap in fear: Assessing the interactive effects of gender and perceived risk on fear of crime. Sociological Spectrum, 24(4), 399–425.

74.

Richie

(1996). Compelled to crime: The gender entrapment of the battered black woman. Routledge.

75.

Riger

Gordon

Bailley

(1978). Women’s fear of crime: From blaming to restricting the victim. Victimology, 3, 274–284.

76.

Riggs

Cook

(2015). The shadow of physical harm? Examining the unique and gendered relationship between fear of murder versus fear of sexual assault on fear of violent crime. Journal of Interpersonal Violence, 30(14), 2383–2409.

77.

Ross

Rasool

(2019). “You go to campus with fear and come back with fear”: University students’ experiences of crime. South Africa Crime Quarterly, 68, 7–20.

78.

Rountree

Land

(1996). Perceived risk versus fear of crime: Empirical evidence of conceptually distinct reactions in survey data. Social Forces, 74, 1353–1376.

79.

Runyan

Casteel

Moracco

Coyne-Beasley

(2007). US women’s choices of strategies to protect themselves from violence. Injury Prevention, 13, 270–275.

80.

Sampson

Raudenbush

Earls

(1997). Neighbourhoods and violent crime: A multilevel study of collective efficacy. Science, 277(5328), 918–924.

81.

Sandelowski

(1991). Telling stories: Narrative approaches in qualitative research. Journal of Nursing Scholarship, 23(3), 161–166.

82.

Satchell

(2018). Crime, identity, and community: A post-colonial analysis on Kingston, Jamaica. In Joosen

Bailey

(Eds.), Caribbean crime and criminal justice: Impacts of post-colonialism and gender (pp. 247–263). Routledge.

83.

Schafer

Huebner

Bynum

(2006). Fear of crime and criminal victimization: Gender based contrasts. Journal of Criminal Justice, 34, 285–301.

84.

Sjoberg

Moen

Rundmo

(2004). Explaining risk perception: An evaluation of the psychomentric paradigm in risk perception research. Norwegian University of Science and Technology.

85.

Skogan

Maxfield

(1981). Coping with crime: Individual and neighborhood reactions. Sage.

86.

Smith

Torstensson

(1997). Gender differences in risk perception and neutralizing fear of crime: Toward resolving the paradoxes. British Journal of Criminology, 37(4), 608–634.

87.

Snedker

(2012). Explaining the gender gap in fear of crime: Assessments of risk and vulnerability in New York residents. Feminist Criminology, 7(2), 75–111.

88.

Sparks

(1992). Reason and unreason in left relaism: Some problems in the constitution of the fear of crime. In Mathews

Young

(Eds.), Issues in realist criminology (pp. 119–135). Sage.

89.

Stanko

(1992). The case of fearful women: Gender, personal safety and fear of crime. Women & Criminal Justice, 4(1), 117–135.

90.

Sutton

Ruprah

(2017). Restoring paradise in the Caribbean: Combatting violence with numbers. Inter American Development Bank.

91.

Sutton

Farrall

(2005). Gender, socially desirable responding and the fear of crime: Are women really more anxious about crime? British Journal of Criminology, 45(2), 212–224.

92.

Swartz

Reyns

Henson

Wilcox

(2011). Fear of in-school victimization: Contextual, gendered, and developmental considerations. Youth Violence and Juvenile Justice, 9, 59–78.

93.

Taylor

(1996). Fear of crime, urban fortunes and suburban social movements: Some reflections from Manchester. Sociology, 30, 317–337.

94.

Tewksbury

Mustaine

(n.d.). College students’ lifestyles and self-protective behaviours: Further considerations of the guardianship concept in routine activities theory. Criminal Justice and Behavior, 30(3), 302–327.

95.

Tillyer

Fisher

Wilcox

(2011). The effects of school crime prevention on students’ violent victimization, risk perception and fear of crime: A multilevel opportunity perspective. Justice Quarterly, 28, 249–277.

96.

Tulloch

Jennett

(2001). Women’s responses to fear of crime. Security Journal, 14, 53–62.

97.

Ullman

Lorenz O’Callaghan

(2018). Risk avoidance strategies after sexual assault: A dyadic study of survivors and informal support providers. Victims & Offenders, 13(6), 814–833.

98.

United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime. (2013). Global study on homicide.

99.

United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime/World Bank. (2007). Crime, violence and development: Trends costs and policy options in the Caribbean. World Bank.

100.

Vrij

Winkel

(1991). Characteristics of the built environment and fear of crime: A research note on interventions in unsafe locations. Deviant Behavior: An Interdisciplinary Journal, 12(2), 203–215.

101.

Warr

(1985). Fear of rape among urban women. Social Problems, 32, 238–250.

102.

Warr

(2000). Fear of crime in the United States: Avenues for research and policy. In Duffee

(Ed.), Measurement and analysis of crime: Criminal justice 2000 (pp. 451–489). U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Justice Programs.

103.

Wasserman

Ellis

(2010). Impactof crime on victims. National victim assistance academy training. Track 1: Foundation-level-training. National Victime Assistance Academy

104.

Widom

(2000). Childhood victimization: Early adversity, later psychopathology. National Institute of Justice Journal, 242, 2–9.

105.

Wilcox

Jordan

Pritchard

(2006). Fear of acquaintance versus stranger rape as a “master status”: Towards refinement of the “shadow of sexual assault.” Violence and Victims, 21, 355–370.