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Keeping trouble at a safe distance
Spithoven, R.
2017
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citation for published version (APA)
Spithoven, R. (2017). Keeping trouble at a safe distance: Unravelling the significance of 'the fear of crime'.
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| Table of contents |
|Chapter 1| Doubting public fears 15
1. The focus of this PhD thesis 17
2. Research objective, questions & design 18
3. The relevance of this study 21
4. What to expect in the following chapters? 22 |Chapter 2| An historical overture on public crime fears 23
1. The American & British histories of ‘the fear of crime’ 24 2. Historical research question, expectations & method 31 3. The rise of ‘the fear of crime’ in the Netherlands 34 4. Conclusion on the history of ‘the fear of crime’ 44 |Chapter 3| What we know about‘the fear of crime’ 47
1. Personal fear of crime 48
2. Situational fear of crime 60
3. Neighbourhood fear of crime 65
4. Societal fear of crime 73
5. Adjusted behaviour 77
6. Making up a balance 79
7. Towards a scientific contribution 82
|Chapter 4| Necessary theoretical extensions 85 1. A structured & broader view on societal fear of crime 85 2. Psychological dynamics underlying risk perceptions 93
3. Renewed conceptual clarity 108
|Chapter 5| Sharpening our view 119 1. Research objective & research questions 119
2. Towards operationalisation 121
3. Research design 142
|Chapter 6| Talking about‘the fear of crime’ 163 1. Interview design, respondents & analytical strategy 163
2. Associative findings 166
3. Semi-structured findings 178
4. Conclusions 191
5. Hypotheses for the subsequent survey 192
|Chapter 7| Measuring‘the fear of crime’ 195
1. Sample characteristics 195
2. Descriptive statistics 199
3. Reliability, scales & dimensions of concepts 212
4. Structural equation models 219
5. Conclusions for the quantitative analyses 231
|Chapter 8| Fearing crime at a safe distance 237 1. Taking a multi-dimensional perspective 238 2. Answering our research questions 239 3. General conclusion: fearing crime at a safe distance 245
4. Methodological limitations 246
5. Practical implications 250
6. Suggestions for future research 252
| Summary | 257
| References | 261
| Appendices | 293
Appendix I – Photographs used for Q-sorting 294
Appendix II – Interview guide 306
Appendix III – Questionnaire 312
