Are elderly men worried about crime?

The Gender Safety Gap: Examining the Impact of Victimization History, Perceived Risk, and Personal Control

Previous research has documented that, in general, women are more concerned about their personal safety and take more safety precautions than men. However, this study looks beyond gender by examining the association of three overall factors including victimization history, perceived risk of future victimization, and personal control with worry about safety, safety responses, and bystander intervention intentions for 270 men and 821 women. There were four main findings from this study including the following: (a) The two most consistently associated factors with worry about safety, safety responses, and bystander intervention intentions were higher perceived risk of violent victimization and safety efficacy; (b) recent victimization, rather than victimization history, played an important role in safety responses particularly for women; (c) different patterns of factors are associated with different safety responses demonstrating the importance of examining a wide variety of safety responses; and (d) the pattern of factors associated with worry about safety and safety responses do differ by gender but also had some important similarities. Implications for future research and prevention as well as safety planning interventions are discussed.

Physical Health, Mental Health, and Fear of Crime Among College Students: A Consideration of Sex Differences

This article examines how physical health and mental health affect college students' fear of crime. Few studies have examined the influence of fear of crime on both objective and subjective measures of physical and mental health and-to our knowledge-none has examined how health measures vary by sex in the United States. In addition, most of the existing research targets older individuals, rather than college students. Using the ACHA-NCHA data set (American College Health Association-National College Health Assessment), we expand the fear of crime literature by examining both subjective and objective physical and mental health measures among college-aged men and women.

Staying Streetwise: Accurate Judgments of Approaching Aggression in Older Age

The extant literature has generally demonstrated that young adults can detect the trait aggression of another person with limited information. However, there is little research that investigates the life course persistence of aggression detection accuracy. Here, we aimed to explore the accuracy of older adults at detecting potential aggressors. Thirty-nine older adults (M = 71.49, SD = 7.59) and eighty-seven young adults (M = 20.24, SD = 1.74) made intimidation judgments, via video recordings, for nine people (targets). 'Aggression detection accuracy' was shown in the relationship between the intimidation judgments made by participants and the targets' responses to the Buss-Perry Aggression Questionnaire. Both age groups were highly accurate in their recognition of trait aggression and accuracy was maintained into older age, with no difference in accuracy between the older and young adults. There was, however, more variability in the ratings given by the older adults compared to the young adults, suggesting less consensus in judgment for the older compared to the young group. Overall, the participants in this study were highly accurate at detecting trait aggression. There was no difference in average aggression detection between older and young adults but there was in sample agreement. These results are discussed in the context of age effects on intimidation, as well as research in accurate aggression detection.

Social Capital and Feelings of Unsafety in Later Life

The aim of this study was to examine the relation between social capital, defined in terms of social ties, place attachment, and civic participation, and feelings of unsafety in later life. Survey data for 24,962 people aged 60 years and older from 85 municipalities across Belgium provided the empirical evidence for the analysis. The results of the multiple regression analysis reveal that a lack of opportunities for political participation is the most important factor in interpreting feelings of unsafety. In addition, several features of place attachment proved to be associated with feelings of unsafety, such as neighborhood satisfaction and neighborhood involvement. Finally, some recommendations to reduce feelings of unsafety among older people are discussed. The results point to the need to enhance opportunities to give older people a voice in the process of political decision making as an important action in reducing feelings of unsafety.