Attitudes toward Immigration and Fear of Crime: Findings from the European Social Survey 2022

• In Event: Social Dimensions of Fear of Crime

Abstract

Fear of crime has been studied widely. Some conclusions have been well established, while debates still exist. Regarding correlates, much evidence has accumulated to support that women, the elderly, the less educated and the disadvantaged are generally more fearful. Contextual correlates, such as neighborhood incivility, population composition and social capital, have also been linked to fear of crime. Using data from the 10th Round (2022) of the European Social Survey (28 participating countries), the present study examines the relationship between attitudes toward immigration and fear of crime. While observing debates on the conceptual affinity between fear of crime and perceived threat of victimization, the item "how safe do you – or would you – feel walking alone in this area after dark?" was used as a measure of fear of crime. It was recoded into a binary variable separating the sample into people who feel "very safe" or "safe" and "unsafe" or "very unsafe". Assuming that attitudes affect fear, rather than the more common assumption that fear affects attitudes, this binary variable was modeled as the dependent variable in logistic regression equations with four key predictors: attitude toward immigrants of the same race/ethnic group as most people in each country, attitude toward immigrants of a different race/ethnic group as most people in each country, attitude toward immigrants of people from the poorer countries outside Europe and opinion about whether each country is a worse or a better place to live due to the presence of immigrants. Several controls (gender, age, education, relative deprivation, trust in people and trust in the police) were included in the models. The analysis detected statistically significant (albeit modest) effects in the expected direction (more negative attitudes toward immigration associated with more fear of crime) for all four key predictors. Theoretical implications of the findings are discussed.

Author

• Stelios Stylianou, Cyprus University of Technology