Some issues of the feeling of safety and fear of crime

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Some issues of the feeling of safety and fear of
crime

• Dr. Ilona Michailovic
• Vilnius University

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Fear of Crime

• Professionals in different fields are aware that
  fear of crime is not only provoked by crime rates
  but by a lot of different social problems on
  local and national level.

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Fear of Crime

• The fear of crime as a public problem must be
  treated as seriously as preventing and reducing
  crime

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Fear of Crime

• The main factors shaping the phenomenon of a fear
  of crime are direct victimisation experience
  (i.e. becoming a crime victim) and indirect
  victimisation experience (i.e. contacts with
  individuals, who have had direct victimisation
  experience).

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Fear of Crime

• Another very important factor in the fear of
  crime is the perception of the local community in
  the consciousness of the people.

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Risk of Victimisation

• The most recent data confirms what has long been
  the trend young people between the ages of 16
  and 24 are the most victimised group, regardless
  of whether it is crimes of violence or crimes of
  property

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The Respondents Feeling of safety

• The survey Conflict Situations at Vilnius Night
  Entertainment Locations conducted in October
  2010 and November 2011

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Conflict Situations at Vilnius Night
Entertainment Locations

• The peak hours for the night violence to be
  escalated are the late evening and night hours
  (from 6 p.m. to 6 a.m.), also on weekends
• About half of the respondents had not involved
  into any conflict situation at night
  entertainment locations during the past year, and
  only about one third of them had never had a
  chance to observe the situations in action.

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Conflict Situations at Vilnius Night
Entertainment Locations

• The contest The Safest Night Bar 2011
  organised by the III police commissariat of the
  Vilnius Region Police Commissariat

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Prevention of Victimisation

• In a survey of college students Tweksbury and
  Mustaine (2003) found that those students who
  were more fearful were more likely to use
  self-protective measures.

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Feeling of Safety

• Representative Survey of Lithuanian Residents
  conducted in April 2008
• 17 of Lithuanian Residents feel safe or very
  safe, 48 feel more unsafe and unsafe, and 35
  neither safe nor unsafe (neutral).

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Feeling of Safety

• factors mostly increased the feeling of being
  unsafe among Lithuanias residents
• rising prices and inflation (81), crime (62),
  illness related problems (41), small pensions
  (26), the risk of unemployment (20), etc.

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• More research on fear and insecurity is necessary
  if we want to understand this contradictory
  phenomenon.

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Thank you