engleski

Fear of crime and overall happiness: results from national survey

Past research suggests that the fear of crime can be associated with various negative outcomes, such as lower subjective well-being, psychological distress, inhibited behavior, and general distrust. The goal of this article was to examine how fear of crime, general trust in people, satisfaction with personal safety and general feeling of physical safety can be related to overall happiness in life. Data were obtained from the national public opinion survey conducted in 2007, by Institute of social sciences Ivo Pilar, in which a representative sample of 1129 participants were administered a questionnaire. We conceptualized fear of crime as a multidimensional construct, measured by asking respondents to indicate on 4 point scale how worried they feel about becoming a victim of various criminal offences. Other predictors were operationalized with one item: Global trust in people: „ Taking all together, do you think that people are trustworthy in general?“ ; Satisfaction with personal safety: „ How satisfied are you with your feeling of personal safety in general?“ ; General feeling of physical safety: „ To what extent do you feel physically safe in your life in general?“ . Overall happiness was also measured with one item („ How happy do you feel in your life in general?“ ). Using multiple regression analysis, results revealed significant predictive power of the described set of predictors (fear of crime, general trust in people, satisfaction with personal safety and general feeling of physical safety) on overall happiness. The strongest predictors were satisfaction with feeling of personal safety and global trust in people. The results are discussed within relevant theoretical framework.

fear of crime; subjective well being; happiness

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