The fear of crime

A tale of two cities

Authors

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.34024/csr.2024.60.3.17399

Keywords:

Fear of crime, Victimization surveys, Feeling of insecurity

Abstract

This article is a comparative study on the phenomenon known in criminology as "fear of crime" in two cities of Rio Grande do Sul, Porto Alegre and Santa Cruz do Sul, based on data collected by two victimization surveys. In the literature review, we examined the five systematic reviews on fear of crime best ranked according to the bibliometric software Publish or Perish (PoP), published in English on the Google Scholar platform in the last 10 years (2012-2022). Employing the same criteria, we reviewed the 10 studies conducted in Brazil on fear of crime best ranked on PoP, published in Portuguese over the same period. In the comparison between the two cities, we found very distinct levels of fear of crime, with the phenomenon being much more expressive in Porto Alegre. The distribution of fear in both cities, however, is not homogeneous and there are statistically significant differences for the variables of gender, race and income. In Santa Cruz do Sul, we also found a significant concentration of fear according to sexual orientation, affecting homosexuals and bisexuals more widely.

Key words - Fear of crime, victimization surveys, evidences.

 

Author Biographies

  • Marcos Rolim, Centro Universitário Ritter dos Reis -UniRitter

    Marcos Rolim holds a PhD in Sociology from the Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul (UFRGS) and is a specialist in public safety from the University of Oxford (UK). He is a professor at the Ritter dos Reis University Center (UniRitter).

  • Daiana Hermann, Centro Universitário Ritter dos Reis -UniRitter

    Daiana Hermann holds a PhD in Sociology from the Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul (UFRGS), with a doctoral internship at the Université Paris Nanterre. She is currently a market intelligence analyst at Grupo Ânima Educação.

  • Alberto L.W. Koppitke , Instituto Cidade Segura - ICS

    Alberto Kopittke holds a PhD in Public Policy from the Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul (UFRGS). He works as a consultant in the area of ​​public safety and is the executive director of the Instituto Cidade Segura (ICS).

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Published

2025-02-18

Issue

Vol. 60 No. 3 (2024): September/December

Section

Articles

License

All publications in Ciências Sociais em Revista (CSR) are licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International - CC BY 4.0, which permits sharing, copying, and redistributing the material in any medium or format, provided the original work is properly cited.

How to Cite

The fear of crime: A tale of two cities. (2025). Ciências Sociais Em Revista, 60(3). https://doi.org/10.34024/csr.2024.60.3.17399