Fear of Crime in Urban Environments: A Systematic Review of Current Research
Keywords:
fear of crime, systematic review, urban studies, bibliometrics, PRISMA-2020
Abstract
This paper presents a systematic literature review on the fear of crime and related features of urban environments. The growing interest in research on the emotional perception of this environment and neurourbanism has led to a large amount of research in need of systematization. Recent studies on the fear of crime are characterized by heterogeneity and the inconsistency of their results, so it is important to apply structured approaches to their analysis and interpretation. This study complements existing research about the spatial indicators which influence the fear of crime, and identifies gaps in the literature. The review was conducted following the PRISMA-2020 guidelines. Papers were selected and identified through AI-based Research Rabbit. 23 publications, which most correspond to the inclusion criteria, were included in the review. The results of the analysis confirm a significant dependence of the fear of crime on certain characteristics of the urban environment, although the influence of some of them needs further investigation.
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References
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Pain R.H. (1997) Social Geographies of Women’s Fear of Crime // Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers. P. 231–244.
Parker K.D., Onyekwuluje A.B. (1992) The Influence of Demographic and Economic Factors on Fear of Crime Among African Americans // The Western Journal of Black Studies. Vol. 16. № 3.
Rader N.E. (2004) The Threat of Victimization: A Theoretical Reconceptualization of Fear of Crime // Sociological Spectrum. Vol. 24. № 6. P. 689–704.
Ratnayake R. (2017) Sense of Safety in Public Spaces: University Student Safety Experiences in an Australian Regional City // Rural society. Vol. 26. № 1. P. 69–84.
Rijswijk L. van, Haans A. (2018) Illuminating for Safety: Investigating the Role of Lighting Apprais-als on the Perception of Safety in the Urban Environment // Environment and Behavior. Vol. 50. № 8. P. 889–912.
Scarborough B.K. et al. (2010) Assessing the Relationship Between Individual Characteristics, Neighborhood Context, and Fear of Crime // Journal of Criminal Justice. Vol. 38. № 4. P. 819–826.
Sharma R. et al. (2022) Research Discovery and Visualization Using Researchrabbit: A Use Case of AI in Libraries // COLLNET Journal of Scientometrics and Information Management. Vol. 16. № 2. P. 215–237.
Šimáček P. et al. (2020) To Fear or Not to Fear? Exploring the Temporality of Topophobia in Urban Environments // Moravian Geographical Reports. Vol. 28. № 4. P. 308–321.
Skogan W.G. (2012) Disorder and Crime // The Oxford Handbook of Crime Prevention. Oxford: Oxford University Press. P. 173–188.
Sreetheran M., Van Den Bosch C.C.K. (2014) A Socio-Ecological Exploration of Fear of Crime in Urban Green Spaces–a Systematic Review // Urban Forestry & Urban Greening. Vol. 13. № 1. P. 1–18.
Stamps III A. E. (2005) Enclosure and Safety in Urbanscapes // Environment and Behavior. Vol. 37. № 1. P. 102–133.
Svensdotter A. O. N., Guaralda M. (2018) Dangerous Safety or Safely Dangerous: Perception of Safety and Self-Awareness in Public Space // The Journal of Public Space. Vol. 3. № 1. P. 75–92.
Valera S., Guàrdia J. (2014) Perceived Insecurity and Fear of Crime in a City with Low-Crime Rates // Journal of Environmental Psychology. Vol. 38. P. 195–205.
Warr M. (2000) Fear of Crime in the United States: Avenues for Research and Policy // Criminal Jus-tice. Vol. 4. № 4. P. 451–489.
Williams D., Ahmed J. (2009) The Relationship Between Antisocial Stereotypes and Public CСЕМ Systems: Exploring Fear of Crime in the Modern Surveillance Society // Psychology, Crime & Law. Vol. 15. № 8. P. 743–758.
Wilson J. Q., Kelling G. L. (1982) Broken Windows. Critical Issues in Policing: Contemporary Read-ing // The Atlantic Monthly. P. 395–407.
Yates A., Ceccato V. (2020) Individual and Spatial Dimensions of Women’s Fear of Crime // Crime and Fear in Public Places. Vol. 44. № 2. P. 1–16.
Zarafonitou C., Kontopoulou E. (2020) Environmental Degradation and Fear of Crime: The Research Evidence in the Center of Athens // Urban Crime. An international Journal. P. 3–33.
Blöbaum A., Hunecke M. (2005) Perceived Danger in Urban Public Space: The Impacts of Physical Features and Personal Factors // Environment and Behavior. Vol. 37. № 4. P. 465–486.
Bolger M. A., Bolger P. C. (2019) Predicting Fear of Crime: Results from a Community Survey of a Small City // American Journal of Criminal Justice. Vol. 44. P. 334–351.
Bolger N., Davis A., Rafaeli E. (2003) Diary Methods: Capturing Life as It Is Lived // Annual Re-view of Psychology. Vol. 54. № 1. P. 579–616.
Brownlow A. (2005) A Geography of Men’s Fear // Geoforum. Vol. 36. № 5. P. 581–592.
Brunton-Smith I., Jackson J. (2012) Urban Fear and Its Roots in Place // The Urban Fabric of Crime and Fear. Dordrecht: Springer Netherlands. P. 55–82.
Ceccato V. (2020) The Architecture of Crime and Fear of Crime: Research Evidence on Lighting, CCTV and CPTED Fea-Tures // Crime and Fear in Public Places. N.Y.: Routledge. P. 38–72.
Cho J. T., Park J. (2017) Exploring the Effects of CCTV Upon Fear of Crime: A Multi-Level Ap-proach in Seoul // International Journal of Law, Crime and Justice. Vol. 49. P. 35–45.
Evensen K. H. et al. (2021) Testing the effect of hedge height on perceived safety — A Landscape design intervention // Sustainability. Vol. 13. № 9.
Ferraro K. F. (1995) Fear of Crime: Interpreting Victimization Risk. N.Y.: SUNY Press.
Ferraro K. F., LaGrange R. (1987) The Measurement of Fear of Crime // The Fear of Crime. N.Y.: Routledge. P. 277–308.
Foster S., Giles-Corti B., Knuiman M. (2010) Neighbourhood Design and Fear of Crime: A Social-Ecological Examination of the Correlates of Resi-Dents’ Fear in New Suburban Housing Devel-opments // Health & place. Vol. 16. № 6. P. 1156–1165.
Garland D. (2001) The Culture of Control: Crime and Social Order in Contemporary Society. Chica-go, IL: The University of Chicago Press.
Garofalo J. (1981) The Fear of Crime: Causes and Consequences // Journal of Criminal Law & Crim-inology. Vol. 72. № 2. P. 839–857.
Gray E., Jackson J., Farrall S. (2011) Feelings and Functions in the Fear of Crime: Applying a New Approach to Victimisation Insecurity // The British Journal of Criminology. Vol. 51. № 1. P. 75–94.
Groshong L. et al. (2020) Attitudes About Perceived Park Safety Among Residents in Low-Income and High Minority Kansas City, Missouri, Neighborhoods // Environment and Behavior. Vol. 52. № 6. P. 639–665.
Haider M. A., Iamtrakul P. (2018) Theoretical Concepts of Crime and Practices in Urban Planning and Design Process for Safe Urban Life // International Journal of Building, Urban, Interior and Landscape Technology (BUILT). Vol. 12. P. 7–24.
Hale C. (1996) Fear of Crime: A Review of the Literature // International Review of Victimology. 1996. Vol. 4. № 2. P. 79–150.
Iliyasu I. I., Abdullah A., Marzbali M. H. (2022) Urban Morphology and Crime Patterns in Urban areas: A review of the Literature // Malaysian Journal of Sustainable Environment (MySE). Vol. 9. № 1. P. 213–242.
Iqbal A., Midhat M. (2022) Morphological Characteristics and Fear of Crime: A Case of Public Spaces in the Global North and South // Built Environment. Vol. 48. № 2. P. 206–221.
Jackson J., Gray E. (2010) Functional Fear and Public Insecurities About Crime // The British Journal of Criminology. Vol. 50. № 1. P. 1–22.
Jiang B. et al. (2017) Minimizing the Gender Difference in Perceived Safety: Comparing the Effects of Urban Back Alley In-Terventions // Journal of Environmental Psychology. Vol. 51. P. 117–131.
Jing F. et al. (2021) Assessing the Impact of Street-View Greenery on Fear of Neighborhood Crime in Guangzhou, China // International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health. Vol. 18. № 1.
Johansson S., Haandrikman K. (2023) Gendered Fear of Crime in the Urban Context: A Comparative Multilevel Study of Women’s and Men’s Fear of Crime // Journal of Urban Affairs. P. 1238–1264.
Kawshalya L.W.G., Weerasinghe U.G.D., Chandrasekara D.P. (2022) The Impact of Visual Com-plexity on Perceived Safety and Comfort of the Users: A Study on Urban Streetscape of Sri Lanka // PLOS ONE. Vol. 17. № 8.
Koskela H., Pain R. (2000) Revisiting Fear and Place: Women’s Fear of Attack and the Built Envi-ronment //Geoforum. Vol. 31. № 2. P. 269–280.
Kyttä M. et al. (2014) Perceived Safety of the Retrofit Neighborhood: A Location-Based Approach // Urban Design International. Vol. 19. P. 311–328.
Lewis J. D. (2022) Introducing scite.ai, Inciteful.xyz, and Research Rabbit // Research and Instruction Librarian for Engineering and Science. ZSR Library, Wake Forest University.
Lindgren T., Nilsen M. R. (2012) Safety in Residential Areas // Tijdschrift voor economische en soci-ale geografie. Vol. 103. № 2. P. 196–208.
Liska A.E., Sanchirico A., Reed M.D. (1988) Fear of Crime and Constrained Behavior Specifying and Estimating a Reciprocal Effects Model //Social Forces. Vol. 66. № 3. P. 827–837.
Liu J. (2013) Neighborhood Structure and Fear of Crime in Urban China: Disorder as a Neighbor-hood Process // International Annals of Criminology. Vol. 51. № 1–2. P. 57–84.
Lorenc T. et al. (2013) Fear of Crime and the Environment: Systematic Review of UK Qualitative Ev-idence // BMC public health. Vol. 13. P. 1–8.
Navarrete-Hernandez P. et al. (2023) Planning for Fear of Crime Reduction: Assessing the Impact of Public Space Regeneration on Safety Perceptions in Deprived Neighborhoods // Landscape and Urban Planning. Vol. 237. P. 104809.
Page M.J. et al. (2021) The PRISMA 2020 Statement: An Updated Guideline for Reporting System-atic Reviews // Bmj. Vol. 372.
Pain R. (2001) Gender, Race, Age and Fear in the City // Urban studies. Vol. 38. № 5–6. P. 899–913.
Pain R.H. (1997) Social Geographies of Women’s Fear of Crime // Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers. P. 231–244.
Parker K.D., Onyekwuluje A.B. (1992) The Influence of Demographic and Economic Factors on Fear of Crime Among African Americans // The Western Journal of Black Studies. Vol. 16. № 3.
Rader N.E. (2004) The Threat of Victimization: A Theoretical Reconceptualization of Fear of Crime // Sociological Spectrum. Vol. 24. № 6. P. 689–704.
Ratnayake R. (2017) Sense of Safety in Public Spaces: University Student Safety Experiences in an Australian Regional City // Rural society. Vol. 26. № 1. P. 69–84.
Rijswijk L. van, Haans A. (2018) Illuminating for Safety: Investigating the Role of Lighting Apprais-als on the Perception of Safety in the Urban Environment // Environment and Behavior. Vol. 50. № 8. P. 889–912.
Scarborough B.K. et al. (2010) Assessing the Relationship Between Individual Characteristics, Neighborhood Context, and Fear of Crime // Journal of Criminal Justice. Vol. 38. № 4. P. 819–826.
Sharma R. et al. (2022) Research Discovery and Visualization Using Researchrabbit: A Use Case of AI in Libraries // COLLNET Journal of Scientometrics and Information Management. Vol. 16. № 2. P. 215–237.
Šimáček P. et al. (2020) To Fear or Not to Fear? Exploring the Temporality of Topophobia in Urban Environments // Moravian Geographical Reports. Vol. 28. № 4. P. 308–321.
Skogan W.G. (2012) Disorder and Crime // The Oxford Handbook of Crime Prevention. Oxford: Oxford University Press. P. 173–188.
Sreetheran M., Van Den Bosch C.C.K. (2014) A Socio-Ecological Exploration of Fear of Crime in Urban Green Spaces–a Systematic Review // Urban Forestry & Urban Greening. Vol. 13. № 1. P. 1–18.
Stamps III A. E. (2005) Enclosure and Safety in Urbanscapes // Environment and Behavior. Vol. 37. № 1. P. 102–133.
Svensdotter A. O. N., Guaralda M. (2018) Dangerous Safety or Safely Dangerous: Perception of Safety and Self-Awareness in Public Space // The Journal of Public Space. Vol. 3. № 1. P. 75–92.
Valera S., Guàrdia J. (2014) Perceived Insecurity and Fear of Crime in a City with Low-Crime Rates // Journal of Environmental Psychology. Vol. 38. P. 195–205.
Warr M. (2000) Fear of Crime in the United States: Avenues for Research and Policy // Criminal Jus-tice. Vol. 4. № 4. P. 451–489.
Williams D., Ahmed J. (2009) The Relationship Between Antisocial Stereotypes and Public CСЕМ Systems: Exploring Fear of Crime in the Modern Surveillance Society // Psychology, Crime & Law. Vol. 15. № 8. P. 743–758.
Wilson J. Q., Kelling G. L. (1982) Broken Windows. Critical Issues in Policing: Contemporary Read-ing // The Atlantic Monthly. P. 395–407.
Yates A., Ceccato V. (2020) Individual and Spatial Dimensions of Women’s Fear of Crime // Crime and Fear in Public Places. Vol. 44. № 2. P. 1–16.
Zarafonitou C., Kontopoulou E. (2020) Environmental Degradation and Fear of Crime: The Research Evidence in the Center of Athens // Urban Crime. An international Journal. P. 3–33.
Published
2025-03-31
How to Cite
PakhomovI. (2025). Fear of Crime in Urban Environments: A Systematic Review of Current Research. Urban Studies and Practices, 10(1), 99-115. https://doi.org/10.17323/usp101202599-115
Section
Articles
