ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on the work of Eysink Smeets and Vollaard and Eysink Smeets. It describes the number of sources, indicators and countries have been greatly expanded and the analysis further systematised. The chapter begins with an operationalisation of the terms used and a justification of the methods used. Identifying – and especially interpreting – the international trends in fear of crime are tricky affair. The supranational studies cover many countries, but contain few items about fear of crime. A few international indices in other areas, such as the OECD Better Life Index, have a component relating to fear of crime, but these are based on a single indicator. The Fear of Crime Index for Bolivia, Peru and Uruguay shows a strong rise for the period 2005–2015, while the index for Chile, Ecuador and Venezuela shows a fall. A tempting hypothesis is of course that the fear drop is rooted in the crime drop.
