범죄두려움 측정 개선방안에 대한 연구: 정서와 인지적 평가로서의 범죄두려움

The fear of crime, which is defined as the psychological state of being afraid and worried about becoming a victim of crime, is distinct from the actual crime rate. This difference may be attributed to the fact that fear of crime is often high in reality, but also due to incomplete measurement of fear of crime that fails to reflect the actual circumstances. In light of this, the present study defined fear of crime as both an emotional aspect (general fear: “Have you ever been worried about becoming a victim of crime in the past year?”) and a cognitive evaluation (specific fear: modified to ‘risk perception’ questions regarding the likelihood and severity of the occurrence). A survey of 221 general population was conducted using both the original and modified fear of crime questions to compare the two types and determine if there was a difference in the measurement value. The study found that the level of fear of crime was significantly lower in both types of modified questions. The author then investigated the impact of gender, a key factor affecting fear of crime, on both general and specific fear of crime and found that gender had no significant effect on fear of crime in the modified questions. This indirectly suggests that fear of crime is formed through subjective risk assessment of the crime risk associated with gender, rather than gender itself. Based on the findings of this empirical study, the author argues for the need to supplement the relevant questions of the “National Survey on Public Safety,” one of the few studies that examines fear of crime on a nationwide scale.