This subject is nothing new and for crime prevention practitioners it’s always being discussed in various circles. It can quickly spread like a virus and is often what prompts the call for more police officers, CPTED assessments, target hardening measures, cameras, alarm systems and the list goes on. You can’t discuss the fear of crime without considering perception, something we wrote about last month.

The reality is that fear can get the best of us if we are not careful. It has the potential to “blur” reality and often does! However, the subject requires careful understanding, especially as it relates to victims of crime. For those of us that have been victimized, the fear of crime is very real and we need to appreciate that not everyone feels safe as a result. In many cities across North America, crime rates are down and the fear of crime is disproportionately high. Police services and crime prevention groups around the world are certainly exploring this issue carefully. Is your community suffering from fear of crime?

Eleanor Roosevelt once said “You gain strength, courage, and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face. You must do the thing which you think you cannot do.” I believe that if we truly embrace this challenge we will free ourselves and begin to enjoy our surroundings and become more compassionate towards all people. In Dan Gardner’s book titled RISK – Why We Fear the Things We Shouldn’t – and Put Ourselves in Greater Danger he writes “With the media relentlessly misrepresenting the reality of crime, it is not surprising to find that people have some funny ideas about the issue.” Julian Roberts, a criminologist at Oxford University, reviewed many of the studies on public perceptions and found that – in country after country – most people think that “violent crime accounts for approximately half of all crime recorded by the police.” For those of us that work in community policing and crime prevention, we know this is far from the truth. Fact is, as Gardner points out “Crime is way down. War is declining. And that’s far from the end of the good news.”

We must continue to collaborate with others in an effort to better understand the fear of crime and to act as community Myth Busters. It’s all about being honest and restoring harmony in our cities and neighbourhoods. Sharing resources and implementing best practices will lead to a reduction in the fear and incidence of crime. Just look around you, it’s not hard to find success stories.  Case in point – Safe Communities Partnership in East Sussex, England.

The fear of crime does not reflect the reality – we have never lived in safer times. Perhaps some of us need a reality check to reduce our Fear Factor.

Filed under Community Crime Prevention, Graffiti, Portals for Discovery