Perceived Neighborhood Safety in Urban China: How Do We Know What Is Real?

• In Event: Applying Advanced Methods to Study Crime and Criminal Justice Issues in Asian Societies

Abstract

Studies have heavily relied on resident surveys to investigate neighborhood crime and safety in urban China due to limited police data and limited access to the data. However, resident reports are largely based on their perceptions which may be influenced by their individual characteristics/experience and neighborhood context. Research has indicated a social and psychological process in which actual conditions of neighborhood crime and safety are translated into perceptions. The present study aims to compare the pattern of resident reports with those of reports from chairpersons of neighborhood committees and community police officers, which represents an attempt to conduct a cross-validation. Data for the analysis come from surveys of the three informers in a city of China, 2018. Construct validity and measurement models of structural equation modeling are used to perform the comparison.

Author

• Lening Zhang, Sant Francis University