How The Social Interactions in Communities affect the Fear of Crime

Cristian Pulido, Jeisson Prieto and Francisco Gómez

Systems Research and Behavioral Science, 2019, vol. 36, issue 6, 789-798

Abstract: Fear of crime (FoC) refers to the subjective risk assessment of being a crime victim and the magnitude of its consequences. FoC emerges as a social construct, which is highly dependent on various psychological, cultural, and social factors. Mathematical models for the emergence and diffusion of information related to FoC relies on sequential and random interactions among persons. However, these interactions seem to be simultaneous and conditioned to members of particular social groups. Recent evidence suggests that in other spreading phenomena, the topology of the underlying network that supports individual communication may influence the community member's opinions. This paper studies how the FoC changes with preferential interaction between persons defined by a network with community structure. These particular networks are typical of many unequal societies. The results indicate that even if these supporting structures allow efficient communication, in the case of FoC propagation, this particular structure may promote an isolation effect of the FoC for the different communities. This isolation effect is higher for communities with low susceptibility to crime. Therefore, groups with low susceptibility to crime have higher feelings of security than groups with high susceptibility to crime when considering interactions in communities.

Date: 2019
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