Political Socialization: Analyzing Age, Period and Cohort Effects on Worry about Crime and Disorder.

• In Event: Fear of Crime: International Perspectives

Abstract

Fear of crime is an area of substantial research and theorizing in contemporary criminology. Still, to our knowledge it has not been considered within a long-term framework of political generations. Herein, using insights from political science and generational modelling, we start the process of exploring cohort-influenced aspects of the fear of crime and perceptions of disorder. Individual ageing, socio-political contexts and generational membership are distinct temporal processes. These age, period and cohort (APC) effects are crucial to a robust understanding of the origins and shape of social change and its consequences (Mannheim, 1928). We employ repeated cross-sectional data from the British Crime Survey (1982-2012) in an APC analysis to explore how worry about crime and disorder were impacted by the political environment in which respondents experienced their ‘formative years’. For example, we assess if those who grew up in the 1980s in England and Wales – an era of economic individualism and high-crime rates – were more likely to express anxiety about particular offences/activities than the political generations who came before and after them. Our results underline the theoretical significance of political socialization and the methodological relevance of time when exploring public perceptions of crime.

Authors

• Dr Gray, University of Sheffield

• Stephen Farrall, University of Sheffield (UK)