ABSTRACT
Fear of crime in large cities may affect individual behavior inde pendently of actual experiences with crime. Fear may produce as debilitating an effect on economic and social systems as crime itself. Fear affects nearly everyone in urban areas, while a smaller proportion of the population is actually victimized. Factors related to fear of crime include misperceptions of the threat of crime, urban social disintegration, and physical characteristics of the environment. Policies for reducing fear may be independent of crime reduction policies. Confidence building, community building, or physical rebuilding strategies may be developed. There may, however, be problems with each of these strategies: some may increase fear by calling attention to crime; others may increase carelessness by prompting people to abandon precautions which were responsible for reductions in crime.
