Measuring the fear of crime

When it comes to fear of crime, it can be difficult to set targets which can be measured, because there are a variety of different questions to ask, and fear of crime can often be confused with other personal safety issues, such as terrorist attacks or a natural disaster.

The British Crime Survey (BCS) was first published in 1982 and has consistently asked the same questions measuring fear. Our target specifically aims to reduce fear of burglary, car crime and violent crime. Respondents are asked their level of worry and given the choice of “not at all worried”, “not very worried”, fairly worried” and “very worried”. Within the BCS we are measured on the percentage of respondents who say they are “very worried” about becoming a victim of crime within those categories:

·        Burglary has one question asking people how worried they are about having their home broken into and something stolen.

·        Car crime has two questions asking people how worried they are about having their car stolen and having something stolen from their car.

·        Violent crime has four questions asking people how worried they are about becoming a victim of mugging, rape, physical attack by a stranger and racially motivated crime.

For more information about how the questions are measured look at SPI 10 (Statutory Performance Indicator) in the Glossary under Annex 1 at http://www.homeoffice.gov.uk/rds/pdfs05/hosb1105.pdf.

From a measurement point of view, asking the same question year on year is useful as it helps to establish a baseline on which to work from. It also helps to evaluate results and assess the impact of activities undertaken.

From the examples shown below of survey questions, all except example 5 deal with personal safety issues. Before you start your survey you will need to be clear about what you are trying to achieve from the survey and your measures.

A good example of the variation of questions used in surveys was published in 1995. Clive Griffiths’s “Tackling Fear of Crime: A Starter Kit” is a useful measurement tool, providing a questionnaire and a computer disk to help process the results. The questionnaire aims to measure crime in a target area, but also take into consideration personal, environmental and social factors which can affect people. The results from the questionnaire should provide enough information needed to begin to tackle the problem. There are a variety of questions aimed at areas such as personal safety, fear of crime, how people think they would cope if they were a victim of crime and safety measures they may or may not take to prevent victimisation.

With questions such as those in example 3 below, there could almost be a compulsion to ask why that person feels a particular way about something. There are a lot of possibilities about why people feel the way they do and establishing the drivers can be difficult. One way to deal with this is to ask why and then limit the number of responses. An example could be:

Do you avoid going out alone in the town centre after dark? “Yes”

Why? Please pick from the following:

• I have seen people fighting
• I was threatened or attacked
• I saw people dealing or using drugs
• There were a lot of drunk people
• Any other reason

This could help you to focus on the issues within your locality, as you will know more about what is causing people to avoid certain areas and why. For local surveys to be worthwhile, the questions need be written in plain english and measure concepts which are relevant to the CDRP as well as the residents.

Fear of Crime: examples of local survey questions

The British Crime Survey

Proxy Measures