Abstract

Research upon the fear of crime has grown substantially in recent years. From its inception, this field has relied almost exclusively upon quantitative surveys, which have suggested that the fear of crime is a prevalent social problem. However, doubts about the nature of the instruments used to investigate this phenomenon, and in particular the use of 'closed' questions, have raised the possibility that the fear of crime has been significantly misrepresented. This Update suggests that our understanding of the fear of crime is a product of the way it has been researched rather than the way it is.

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