Crime-Related fears and demographic diversity in los angeles county after the 1992 civil disturbances
✍ Scribed by Rochelle F. Hanson; Daniel W. Smith; Dean G. Kilpatrick; John R. Freedy
- Book ID
- 101359238
- Publisher
- John Wiley and Sons
- Year
- 2000
- Tongue
- English
- Weight
- 101 KB
- Volume
- 28
- Category
- Article
- ISSN
- 0090-4392
No coin nor oath required. For personal study only.
✦ Synopsis
The purpose of this research was to assess demographic differences in exposure to traumatic events and fear of crime. This is part of a larger project that assessed the impact of the 1992 Los Angeles civil disturbances on psychological functioning. Random digit dialing methods were used to obtain an adult household probability sample (age 18 or older) representative of the targeted region (Los Angeles County). A total of 1200 individuals completed a 40-minute comprehensive telephone interview. Four hundred interviews were sampled from South Central (the area most heavily affected by the rioting), and 800 were sampled from the remainder of L.A. County. A series of chi-square analyses indicated that there were differences in (a) prevalence of lifetime and past year victimization, (b) perception of neighborhood problems, (c) exposure to the disturbances, and (d) fear of crime as a function of demographic characteristics (i.e., gender, race, ethnicity, community). A hierarchical multiple regression was conducted using demographic variables, victimization, and exposure to the disturbances to predict fear of crime. Results indicated that demographic variables were significantly predictive of crime fear, but that report of neighborhood problems was the strongest predictor. Additionally, exposure to the disturbances remained a significant predictor of crime fear after controlling for the effects of victimization, demographics, and neighborhood problems. Results suggest that while diverse community, race, ethnicity, and gender variables contribute