Parity and disparity among three measures of fear of crime: A research note

Research on fear of crime often concerns problems associated with measuring fear of crime. Most of the literature in this area critiques “global measures,” which are the most commonly used, and suggests movement to more specific measures of fear of crime. Although much has been said about the use of alternative measures of fear, seldom has research provided comparative analyses of the alternative measures. Using a conceptual model based on previous research, the present study illustrates the differences among findings using three measures of fear of crime: global fear, fear of property crime, and fear of violent crime. This is achieved by employing each of the three measures of fear as the dependent variable in identical models. Comparing the results, the parity and disparity of these measures are demonstrated. The results suggest that conflicting findings from previous research may be a consequence of the types of measures used in the analyses. Thus, it is theoretically important to understand what dimensions of fear are being measured by our operational procedures.