engleski

Extent of fear of crime in Croatia and effects of television viewing on fear of crime

The purpose of the present study was to present prevalence data on fear of crime in Croatia and to compare it with available data from other countries. Also, the purpose was to explore the relations between television viewing and fear of crime when the effect of demographic variables is controlled. Used demograpfic variables are gender, age, area type and education level. Television viewing was assesed on 4 point scale by asking respondents how often they watch: 1- talk shows with politicians nad public persons ; 2- police procedural television series ; 3- daily informative news and 4- documentaries with crime themes. A composite score for each type of television program was calculated by summing the viewnig ratings across 4 items and then by dividing it by the number ot items. Fear of crime is conceptualized as a multidimensional construct which was measured by asking respondents to indicate on 4 point scale how worried they feel about becoming: victim of physical attack or robbery, victim of theft and victim of burglary. Analyzed data were gathered by face- to- face interviews within a large scale public opinion research conducted by Institute of social sciences Ivo Pilar in November 2007, on nationally representative probabilistic sample of 1129 adults from 93 Croatian villages, towns and cities. Conducted regression analysis revealed that gender, area type and education are related to fear of crime, and that age is not related. The data also revealed that television viewing influences fear of crime when demographic variables are controlled.

fear of crime; effects of television viewing

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