THEORETICAL AND METHODOLOGICAL ISSUES REGARDING FEAR OF CRIME
Keywords:
fear of crime, approaches, measurementAbstract
The fear of crime as a complex phenomenon has been actualized in the last few decades within the framework of criminological and victimological research, primarily because of the numerous consequences that can occur on an individual and social level for people. In the literature there are certain theoretical explanations of the fear of crime among individuals. The most common theoretical concepts for explaining the fear of crime such as the concept of vulnerability, the victimological concept, the social control and the ecological concept belong to the socio -demographic model of explaining the fear of crime. But the socio -psychological model is also found and tested in the literature based on the model of Van der Wurff et al. (1989). Another significant issue regarding the fear of crime are the methodological dilemmas regarding its operationalization. There are many questions regarding the validity and reliability of measuring fear of crime, especially regarding the instruments and questions used to measure it, which are elaborated within the paper.
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