The study of fear of crime has been dominated by survey researchers and quantitative analysis. However, very little is known about the kinds of social situations that generate fear, the ways in which people manage fear during social interaction, and the manner in which feared individuals respond to another's show of vulnerability. The author attends to these issues with data collected during observational research in an urban Latino community. Based on one particular setting, he discovered that the fearful and the feared often worked together to produce confrontational episodes. Driven by past harassment and ethnic prejudice, and influenced by media accounts of local violence, many pedestrians displayed obvious fear to the men who congregated in a commercial district. The author found that fearful behavior often resulted in harassment because it implicitly labeled men as dangerous. Men who sensed another's fear often reacted by behaving in a threatening manner.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
Anderson, E.
1990. Streetwise: Race, class and change in an urban community.Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
2.
Bankston, W. B.
, and C. Y. Thompson. 1989. Carrying firearms for protection: A causal model.Sociological Inquiry59:75-87.
3.
Becker, H. S.
1963. Outsiders.New York: Free Press.
4.
Bourgois, P.
1995. In Search of respect: Selling crack in El Barrio.Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
5.
Edmonston, B.
, and J. S. Passel. 1994. Ethnic demography: U.S. immigration and ethnic variations. In Immigration and ethnicity: The integration of America's newest arrivals, edited by B. Edmonston and J. Passel, 1-30. Washington, DC: Urban Institute Press.
6.
Feagin, J. R.1991. The continuing significance of race: Antiblack discrimination in public places.American Sociological Review56:101-116.
7.
Ferraro, K. F.
1995. Fear of crime: Interpreting victimization risk.Albany, NY: State University of New York Press.
8.
Gardner, C. B.1988. Access information: Public lies and private peril.Social Problems35:384-397.
9.
Gardner, C. B.1990. Safe conduct: Women, crime, and self in public places.Social Problems37:311-328.
10.
Gardner, C. B.
1995. Passing by: Gender and public harassment.Berkeley: University of California Press.
11.
Hurtado, A.
, P. Gurin, and T. Peng. 1994. Social identities—a framework for studying the adaptations of immigrants and ethnics: The adaptations of Mexicans in the United States.Social Problems41:129-151.
12.
Katz, J.
1988. Seductions of crime.New York: Basic Books.
13.
Kelling, G. L.
, and C. M. Coles. 1994. Disorder and the court.Public Interest116:57-74.
14.
Kelling, G. L.
, and C. M. Coles. 1996. Fixing broken windows: Restoring order and reducing crime in our communities.New York: Free Press.
15.
Lagrange, R. L.
, K. F. Ferraro, and M. Supancic. 1992. Perceived risk and fear of crime: Role of social and physical incivilities.Journal of Research in Crime and Delinquency29:311-334.
16.
Lemert, E. M.
1951. Social pathology.New York: McGraw-Hill.
17.
Lewis, D. A.
, and G. Salem. 1988. Fear of crime: Incivility and the production of a social problem.New Brunswick, NJ: Transaction Books.
18.
Lilly, J. R.
, F. T. Cullen, and R. A. Ball. 1995. Criminological theory: Context and consequences.2d ed.Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
19.
Liska, A. E.
, A. Sanchirico, and M. D. Reed. 1988. Fear of crime and constrained behavior: Specifying and estimating a reciprocal effects model.Social Forces66:827-837.
20.
Lofland, L. H.
1973. A world of strangers: Order and action in urban public space.New York: Basic Books.
21.
Lofland, L. H.
1995. Social interaction: Continuities and complexities in the study of nonintimate sociality. In Sociological perspectives on social psychology, edited by K. Cook, G. Fine, and J. House, 176-201. Boston: Allyn & Bacon.
22.
Merry, S. E.
1981. Urban danger: Life in a neighborhood of strangers.Philadelphia: University of Temple Press.
23.
Monkkonen, E. H.
1988. America becomes urban: The development of U.S. cities and towns 1780-1980.Berkeley: University of California Press.
24.
Schneider, V. W.
, and B. Wiersema. 1990. Limits and use of the uniform crime reports. In Measuring crime: Large-scale, long-range efforts, edited by D. MacKenzie, P. Baunach, and R. Roberg, 21-48. Albany: State University of New York Press.
25.
Shorris, E.
1992. Latinos: A biography of the people.New York: Norton.
26.
Skogan, W. G.
1990. Disorder and decline: Crime and the spiral of decay in American neighborhoods.New York: Free Press.
27.
Skogan, W. G.
, and M. G. Maxfield. 1981. Coping with crime.Beverly Hills, CA: Sage.
28.
St. John, C.
, and T. Heald-Moore. 1996. Age, racial prejudice, and fear of criminal victimization in public settings.Sociological Focus29:15-31.
29.
Warr, M.1984. Fear of victimization: Why are women and the elderly more afraid?Social Science Quarterly65:681-702.
30.
Warr, M.1985. Fear of rape among urban women.Social Problems32:238-250.
31.
Wilson, J. Q.
, and G. L. Kelling. 1989. Making neighborhoods safe.Atlantic Monthly263:46-52.
32.
Wolfinger, N. H.1995. Passing moments: Some social dynamics of pedestrian interaction.Journal of Contemporary Ethnography24:323-340.
33.
Wright, J. D.
1991. Guns and crime. In Criminology: A contemporary handbook, edited by J. Sheley, 441-457. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth.
34.
Yin, P.1982. Fear of crime as a problem for the elderly.Social Problems30:240-245.
35.
Yin, P.
1985. Victimization and the aged.New York: Charles C Thomas.
