ABSTRACT
Fear of crime' emerged as a focus for criminological inquiry and policy concern in the USA in the mid-to late 1960s. In the 1980s and 1990s, understandings of fear of crime that had been derived from national victimization survey findings faced challenges from various perspectives. Academic preoccupation with measuring the extent of 'fearfulness' in (various) populations, the conditions that generate 'fearful' responses and the impact on the well-being of individuals and communities continues. More critical work has placed attention on understanding fear of crime alongside a wider range of 'risks' and harms in people's everyday sensemaking in different settings. The fear-of-crime discourse moulds compliant citizens for governments, and this has become another focus for critical academic work. In particular, 'fear of terrorism', and its role in statecraft, has become a major theme in this vein following the attacks on the World Trade Center in New York in 2001.
