ABSTRACT
This chapter formulates three related but distinct perspectives which explain individual-level fear of crime—indirect victimization, disorder, and community concern—into testable causal models. It identifies two independent dimensions of fear of crime: a visceral response to possible physical harm or confrontation; and a less emotional, more anxiety-related dimension. In sum, proponents of die disorder perspective have advanced several theoretical rationales to explain how and why fear of crime should be produced by social and physical incivilities. The indirect victimization perspective recasts the sociodemographic correlates of fear into a vulnerability framework and attempts to specify the crime-fear link by examining the impact of local social ties. The perceived disorder approach argues that people are afraid because, in addition to crime, they witness signs of social and physical decay. This decay signals the impotence of the powers of the state, resulting in increased feelings of vulnerability.
