In the fear of crime literature, there is a consensus that women consistently report higher levels of fear. I examine how men and women assess their risks in light of prior experience, the environmental conditions that signal risk, and perceived personal vulnerability to provide a more thorough account of the gender disparity. Findings from in-depth interviews with New York City residents suggest that subjective evaluations of vulnerability are strong indicators of fear of crime for men and women. Furthermore, qualitative data reveal that gender assessments of vulnerability are related to issues of socialization, social learning processes and notions of effective agency. Little evidence supports fear of rape as the driving force behind perceived vulnerability for women.
AndersonE. (1990). Streetwise: Race, class and change in an urban community. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.
2.
BachmanR. (1992). Elderly victims. Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Justice.
3.
BarberB. M.OdeanT. (2001, February). Boys will be boys: Gender, overconfidence, and common stock investment. Quarterly Journal of Economics, 116, 261-292.
4.
BaumerT. L. (1978). Research on fear of crime in the United States. Victimology, 3, 254-264.
5.
BruceA. C.JohnsonJ. E. (1994). Male and female betting behaviour: New perspectives. Journal of Gambling Studies, 5, 183-198.
6.
CobbinaJ. E.MillerJ.BrunsonR. (2008). Gender, neighborhood danger, and risk avoidance strategies among urban African American youth. Criminology, 46, 501-538.
7.
CohenL. E.FelsonM. (1979). Social change and crime: A routine activity approach. American Sociological Review, 44, 588-608.
8.
CowanG. (2000). Women’s hostility toward women and rape and sexual harassment myths. Violence Against Women, 6, 238-246.
9.
DarrowW. W.JaffeH. W.ThomasP. A.HaverkosH. W.RogersM. F.GuinanM. E.. . . CurranJ. W. (1986). Sex of interviewer, place of interview, and responses of homosexual men to sensitive questions. Archives of Sexual Behavior, 15, 79-88.
10.
DuneierM.MolotchH. (1999). Talking city trouble: Interactional vandalism, social inequality, and the “urban interaction problem.”American Journal of Sociology, 104, 1263-1295.
11.
DwyerP. D.GilkesonJ. H.ListJ. A. (2001). Gender differences in revealed risk taking: Evidence from mutual fund investors. Economics Letters, 76, 151-158.
12.
FerraroK. F. (1995). Fear of crime: Interpreting victimization risk. Albany: State University of New York Press.
13.
FerraroK. F. (1996). Women’s fear of victimization: Shadow of sexual assault?Social Forces, 75, 667-690.
14.
FinkelS. E.GuterbockT. M.BorgM. J. (1991). Race-of-interviewer effects in a preelection poll: Virginia 1989. Public Opinion Quarterly, 55, 313-330.
15.
FisherB. S.MayD. (2009). College student’s crime-related fears on campus: Are fear-provoking cues gendered?Journal of Contemporary Criminal Justice, 25, 300-321.
16.
FisherB. S.SloanJ. J.III. (2003). Unraveling the fear of victimization among college women: Is the “shadow of sexual assault hypothesis” supported?Justice Quarterly, 20, 633-659.
17.
FranklinC. A.FranklinT. W. (2009). Predicting fear of crime: Considering differences across gender. Feminist Criminology, 4, 83-106.
18.
GardnerC. B. (1980). Passing by: Street remarks, address rights, and the urban female. Sociological Inquiry, 50, 328-356.
19.
GardnerC. B. (1995). Passing by: Gender and public harassment. Berkeley: University of California Press.
20.
GordonM. T.RigerS. (1989). The female fear. New York, NY: Free Press.
21.
HatchetS.SchumanH. (1975). White respondents and race of interviewes effects. Public Opinion Quarterly, 39, 523-528.
22.
HeidensohnF. (1995). Women and crime. New York: New York University Press.
23.
HindelangM. J.GottfredsonM.GarofaloJ. (1978). Victims of personal crime: An empirical foundation for theory of personal victimization. Cambridge, MA: Ballinger.
24.
HollanderJ. A. (2001). Vulnerability and dangerousness: The construction of gender through conversation about violence. Gender and Society, 15, 83-109.
25.
JacobsJ. (1961). The death and life of great American cities. New York, NY: Random House.
26.
KaltonG. (1983). Introduction to survey sampling. Beverly Hills and London: SAGE Publications.
27.
KanazawaS.StillM. C. (2000). Why men commit crimes (and why they desist). Sociological Theory, 18, 434-447.
28.
KilliasM.ClericiC. (2000). Different measures of vulnerability in their relation to different dimensions of fear of crime. British Journal of Criminology, 40, 437-450.
29.
LaGrangeR. L.FerraroK. (1989). Assessing age and gender differences in perceived risk and fear of crime. Criminology, 27, 697-719.
30.
LaneJ.MeekerJ. W. (2003). Women’s and men’s fear of gang crimes: Sexual and nonsexual assault as perceptually contemporaneous offenses. Justice Quarterly, 20, 337-371.
31.
Langhinrichsen-RohlingJ.LewinsonP.RohdeP.SeeleyJ.MonsonC. M.MeyerK. A.LangfordR. (1998). Gender differences in the suicide-related behaviors of adolescent and young adults. Sex Roles, 39, 839-854.
32.
MaccobyE. E. (1998). The two sexes: Growing up apart, growing up together. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
33.
MaccobyE. E.JacklinC. N. (1970). The psychology of sex differences. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.
34.
MacMillanR.NierobiszA.WelshS. (2000). Experiencing the streets: Harassment and perceptions of safety among women. Journal of Research in Crime and Delinquency, 37, 306-322.
35.
MadrizE. (1997). Nothing bad happens to good girls: Fear of crime in women’s lives. Berkeley: University of California Press.
36.
MayD. C. (2001). The effect of fear of sexual victimization on adolescent fear of crime. Sociological Spectrum, 21, 141-174.
37.
MedeaA.ThompsonK. (1974). Against rape. New York, NY: Farrar, Straus & Giroux.
38.
MerryS. E. (1981). Urban danger: Life in a neighborhood of strangers. Philadelphia, PA: Temple University Press.
39.
MeyerE.PostL. A. (2006). Alone at night: A feminist ecological model of community violence. Feminist Criminology, 1, 207-227.
40.
MillerA. S.StarkR. (2002). Gender and religiousness: Can socialization explanations be saved?American Journal of Sociology, 6, 1399-1423.
41.
MooreS. C.ShepherdJ. (2007). Gender specific emotional responses to anticipated crime. International Review of Victimology, 14, 337-351.
42.
PainR. (2001). Gender, race, age and ear of crime in the city. Urban Studies, 38, 889-913.
43.
PantazisC. (2000). Fear of crime, vulnerability and poverty: Evidence from a British crime survey. British Journal of Criminology, 40, 414-436.
44.
RigerS.GordonM. T.Le BaillyR. (1978). Women’s fear of crime: From blaming the victim to restricting the victim. Victimology, 3, 272-284.
45.
RismanB. (2004). Gender as a social structure: Theory wrestling with activism. Gender & Society, 18, 429-450.
46.
SampsonR. J. (2002). Studying modern Chicago. City and Community, 1, 45-48.
47.
ScottH. (2003). Stranger danger: Explaining women’s fear of crime. Western Criminology Review, 4, 203-214.
48.
SkoganW. G.MaxfieldM. G. (1981). Coping with crime: Individual and neighborhood reactions. Beverly Hills, CA: SAGE.
49.
SmithN. (1996). The new urban frontier: Gentrification and the revanchist city. London: Routledge.
50.
SmithW. R.TorstenssonM. (1997). Gender differences in risk perception and neutralizing of fear of crime: Towards resolving the paradoxes. British Journal of Criminology, 37, 608-634.
51.
SnedkerK. A. (2006). Altruistic and vicarious fear of crime: Fear for others and gendered social roles. Sociological Forum, 21, 163-195.
52.
SnedkerK. A. (2010). Neighborhood conditions and fear of crime: A reconsideration of sex differences. Crime & Delinquency. Advance online publication. doi:10.1177/001112871039200310.1177/0011128710392003
53.
SpainD. (1992). Gendered spaces. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press.
54.
StaffordM.GalleO. (1984). Victimization rates, exposure to risk, and fear of crime. Criminology, 22, 173-185.
55.
StankoE. (1990). Everyday violence: How women and men experience sexual and physical danger. London, UK: Pandora.
56.
StankoE. (1992). The case of fearful women: Gender, personal safety and fear of crime. Women and Criminal Justice, 4, 117-135.
57.
StankoE. (1995). Women, crime and fear. Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, 539, 46-58.
58.
SuttlesG. D. (1968). The social order of the slum: Ethnicity and territory in the inner city. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.
59.
TullochM.JennettC. (2001). Women’s responses to fear of crime. Security Journal, 14, 53-62.
60.
WalkerI. (1992). Effects of interviewer’s sex on responses to the Attitudes Toward Women Scale. Journal of Social Psychology, 132, 675.
61.
WarrM. (1984). Fear of victimization: Why are women and the elderly more afraid?Social Science Quarterly, 65, 681-702.
62.
WarrM. (1985). Fear of rape among urban women. Social Problems, 32, 238-250.
63.
WarrM.EllisonC. G. (2000). Rethinking social reactions to crime: Personal and altruistic fear in family households. American Journal of Sociology, 106, 551-578.
64.
WeselyJ. K.GaarderE. (2004). The gendered “nature” of the urban outdoors: Women negotiating fear of violence. Gender & Society, 18, 645-663.
65.
YoungV. D. (1992). Women: A paradox. Justice Quarterly, 9, 419-441.
