The Relationship Between Current Crime Rates and Perceived Neighborhood Safety
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Authors
Baney, Kadie
Date of Issue
2024
Type
Research Paper
Language
en_US
Subject Keywords
Other Titles
Abstract
A high crime rate is often hypothesized as a key contributor to decreased feelings of neighborhood safety (Putrick et al. 2019). Decreased feelings of neighborhood safety have been found to lead to increased health risks and depression (Putrick et al. 2019). Both findings lead to the question of the current study: what is the relationship between current crime rates and perceptions of safety? Previous studies have defined a positive perception of neighborhood safety as a lack of fear, a belief in police performance, and a belief in police legitimacy (Carter et al. 2021). To further clarify this definition for the purpose of this paper, fear is defined as a psychological emotion invoked by environmental factors and the belief that the likelihood of being a victim of crime is high (Zhang et al. 2021). Police performance and legitimacy is defined as trust and reliability in police work. The other variable that is analyzed within this study is current crime rates. Based on previous studies, crime rates were found through local police reports, the Uniform Crime Report (UCR) from the FBI, and the National Incident-Based Reporting System (NIBRS) (FBI 2021; Zhang et al. 2021). Using these variables, this research project aims to understand the impact current crime rates have on the perception of neighborhood safety.