Question

How does public fear of crime influence criminal justice policy decisions? What drives the fear of crime by the public?

Answer 1

Crime such as public shooting in gang wars, elderly women being mugged for social security check, violence due to racism - then societie's attention is focused on the victims and their losses.Behind the immidiate concrete losses of crime victims there is a more definitive problem- fear. Fear is most enduring legacy of victimization. This becomes a contageous agent spreading the fears of criminal victimization.

However fear is not totally unproductive it prompts caution amongst citizens, thereby reducing criminal opportunities. Fear kindles enthusiasm for publicly supported crime control measures. These reasonable fears channeled in constructive directions prepare society to deal with crime.

And thus these fears influence criminal justice policy decisions which can be explained by following points:

• Public fears influence democratic societies and policies thereby influencing criminal policies. Media highlights the public opnions and its fears leading to a massive force that leads to creations of new policies on a permanent basis .
• If public is consent with the law and the police then it is likely to provide intelligence, act as witnesses and engage in courts. This in turn would lead to reduction in crime rate.

Fear of crime by the public is driven by:

• Actual risk and perception of the risk: Risk factors that are trending and not outdated that affects people fear. These risks may be due to violence, theft, gang wars, etc Disillusionment occurs when we perceive that the offenders are not punished abd thus leads to fear of crime by public.
• Gender : Genders shape the level of crime in individuals. Women fear crime more then men.The female mass have fears regarding safety , leasing apartments alone, late night travelling etc whereas men may have their fears for theft, hacking, forgery, etc.
• Age: Middle aged masses fear for kidnapping ,financial insecurities, bad investements etc. The senior citizens fear for there health and wealth, accomodation, retirement pension plans, travelling safety etc. Youngsters fear for equality, public safety, fair distribution of minimum wages etc. - these fears collectively leads to planning of policies against crime that may harm the interests of each age group.
• Past experience or personal experience related to crime.
• Media misinformation: Media is very crucial factor of fear of crime but sometimes it covers crime stories in a very disappropriate way.