Community effects on fear of crime in Germany – results from multilevel analyses

• In Event: Fear of Crime in an International Context II

Abstract

This presentation examines the genuine effect of neighborhood context on subjective fear of crime. The findings of the study are based on the first Germany-wide Victimization Survey conducted by the Max-Planck-Institute of Criminal Law and the Federal Criminal Police Office of Germany in 2012. Approximately 35.500 respondents within more than 6.000 ZIP code areas were asked to answer questions about their subjective feelings of security and experiences of crime. Furthermore, the study design enabled us to match individual survey data with official statistics about the social structure of the neighborhoods and communities of the respondents. Due to the hierarchical order of the data, I was able to conduct multi-level models to explain fear of crime as measured with the standard-indicator. In addition, I used more sophisticated and detailed measurements of the subjective feeling of security regarding crime to analyze offense-specific worries and consequences of these worries.

Author

• Julian Pritsch, Max Planck Institute for Foreign and International Criminal Law