Get 20M+ Full-Text Papers For Less Than $1.50/day. Start a 14-Day Trial for You or Your Team.

Learn More →

Subjective Well-Being and SecurityState of Affliction: Fear of Crime and Quality of Life in South Africa

Subjective Well-Being and Security: State of Affliction: Fear of Crime and Quality of Life in... [Although fear of crime has featured as a concern among researchers, policymakers and citizens alike in developed countries for several decades, there exist remarkably few empirical studies that investigate the relationship between fear of crime and quality of life. The evidence base in developing countries is especially limited. This chapter assesses the extent and nature of fear of crime in South Africa as well as its impact on subjective well-being. Based on 3,300 respondents sampled in the 2009 South African Social Attitudes Survey, the study represents one of the first non-Western applications of new multiple-item survey measures of fear of crime included in the European Social Survey to derive better estimates of the everyday experience of the fear of crime. The findings reveal that between 50% and 60% of adults exhibit some level of dysfunctional or damaging fear of crime, which portrays South Africans as more fearful than citizens in other parts of the world. Regression analysis supports the conclusion from earlier studies that fear of crime has only a small negative effect on quality of life, accounting for considerably less than 5% of total variance in life satisfaction. The finding by Møller (Soc Indic Res 72(3):263–317, 2005) that those having experienced criminal victimisation are more rather than less satisfied with life compared to non-victims is also confirmed. It is therefore concluded that although worries about crime are expressed by a sizable share of South Africans, many show resilience by not allowing such insecurities and experiences of victimisation to appreciably impact their life satisfaction.] http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png

Subjective Well-Being and SecurityState of Affliction: Fear of Crime and Quality of Life in South Africa

Part of the Social Indicators Research Series Book Series (volume 46)
Editors: Webb, Dave; Wills-Herrera, Eduardo
Roberts, Benjamin J.
Subjective Well-Being and Security — Nov 12, 2011
Download PDF
27 pages

Loading next page...
 
/lp/springer-journals/subjective-well-being-and-security-state-of-affliction-fear-of-crime-m0pymqCDrb

References (55)

Publisher
Springer Netherlands
Copyright
© Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2012
ISBN
978-94-007-2277-4
Pages
149 –175
DOI
10.1007/978-94-007-2278-1_7
Publisher site
See Chapter on Publisher Site

Abstract

[Although fear of crime has featured as a concern among researchers, policymakers and citizens alike in developed countries for several decades, there exist remarkably few empirical studies that investigate the relationship between fear of crime and quality of life. The evidence base in developing countries is especially limited. This chapter assesses the extent and nature of fear of crime in South Africa as well as its impact on subjective well-being. Based on 3,300 respondents sampled in the 2009 South African Social Attitudes Survey, the study represents one of the first non-Western applications of new multiple-item survey measures of fear of crime included in the European Social Survey to derive better estimates of the everyday experience of the fear of crime. The findings reveal that between 50% and 60% of adults exhibit some level of dysfunctional or damaging fear of crime, which portrays South Africans as more fearful than citizens in other parts of the world. Regression analysis supports the conclusion from earlier studies that fear of crime has only a small negative effect on quality of life, accounting for considerably less than 5% of total variance in life satisfaction. The finding by Møller (Soc Indic Res 72(3):263–317, 2005) that those having experienced criminal victimisation are more rather than less satisfied with life compared to non-victims is also confirmed. It is therefore concluded that although worries about crime are expressed by a sizable share of South Africans, many show resilience by not allowing such insecurities and experiences of victimisation to appreciably impact their life satisfaction.]

Published: Nov 12, 2011

Keywords: Life Satisfaction; Violent Crime; Informal Settlement; Personal Safety; European Social Survey

There are no references for this article.