Friends of the Forensic Science Club, this week we present the paper “Is there a relationship between fear of crime and attitudes toward gun control?” by Verrecchia, P. J.; Bush, M. D. and Hendrix, N. (2021), in which authors study whether exists any relationship between fear of crime and having one or another attitude toward gun control, in the United States context.
Debates on whether there should be more restrictive gun control or whether, on the contrary, the permissive policies that exist should continue, are one of the most important public discussions in the United States.
The same happens with fear of crime. In fact, fear of crime has been an interest of criminal justice research since 1960, when a cause for this fear was being looked for.
What would exactly be the association between these two ideas?
In this paper, authors gather data from numerous studies about fear of crime that are mentioned. For instance, those who report higher levels of anxiety, are more concerned with criminal victimization.
Researchers have tried to explain that fear of crime is the result of being sensitive to risk, also due to perceptions of being a crime victim; but more factors influence this fear, such as a lack of neighborhood and community cohesion, social disorganization or broken windows theory.
Previous studies pointed out that women and the elderly, and those with perceptions of community disorder, have higher levels of fear of crime, although these data should be analyzed in research that considers gender bias.
This is a topic that has worried penal justice and criminology for many years, but also gun control has been.
Prior research have delve into questions such as how affects people to possess a gun.
In a study carried out some years ago by the authors of this paper, interesting information was obtained, as that males who own a gun, or whose parents owned a gun, were politically conservative.
At this point, authors think it is logical to assume a fear of crime might predict a desire for more restrictive gun legislation.
In order to confirm this hypothesis, they carry out a study using data from a national survey, with a total sample of more than 3000 participants. They try to explore the association between fear of crime and having one or another attitude toward gun control.
On one hand, a series of statements were created, that had to be scored in a scale, according to whether the person agrees with it. This used to analyze fear of crime.
On the other hand, the same was done in order to analyze the opinion about gun control.
Obtained results surprised the authors. At first glance, the relationship between fear of crime and wanting more restrictions on guns, was weak but statistically significant. Nevertheless, when that relationship is tested with other variables, it disappears.
For instance, younger females who are politically liberal and not gun owners want more restrictions on guns than people who fear crime.
Further qualitative research should explore what is about those variables that seems to impact attitudes toward gun control more than actually fearing crime or even having been a past victim of crime, which also did not have a statistically significant effect on attitude toward gun control.
Another important data obtained, is that “common sense” gun control policies had more support than what might be referred to as “more radical” gun control positions.
For instance, the majority of the respondents favored requiring people who own a gun to register that gun (68%), that all handguns should be registered (69%), requiring all firearms owners to receive safety training (78%) and that gun owners should be licensed (66%).
However, the more radical position of banning handgun ownership was resolutely opposed by almost 70% of the respondents.
Authors affirm that the relationship between fear of crime and gun ownership is complex although it seemed simple at first glance. Future research should consider ways to reduce these complexities. For instance, gun ownership may reduce fear of crime for a brief time, but fear could return or even increase due to the constant reminder of the potential threat that comes with owning a gun even if it is for protection.
We should even consider that persons more fearful of crime may initially desire more restrictions on guns and later become both less fearful and supportive of gun restrictions after becoming a gun owner.
There are methodological limitations in the study, like the fact that no one under 18 took part in the survey. Also, it was considered if people owned guns or not, but they weren’t asked about why they owned a gun. Authors suggest that new studies should continue in this vein.
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