| dc.description.abstract | Over the last several decades, an increasing amount of research has focused on fear of crime. Studies have found that fear of crime is often influenced by actual and perceived risks of victimization. Significant consequences of fear of crime have been found to include behavioral changes, adverse health outcomes, and neighborhood decline. However, fear of crime studies have predominately used cross-sectional data with adult samples. By using longitudinal data and focusing on adolescents, this study attempts to address these gaps in the literature. Data from the Project on Human Development in Chicago Neighborhoods are examined to answer the study’s research questions. More explicitly, structural equation modeling is used to evaluate the impact of personal experiences with violence, including violent victimization, witnessing the violent victimization of others, and involvement in violence, on fear of crime among adolescents living in Chicago. Informed by stress theory, the impact of personal experiences with crime and fear of crime on mental health, explicitly internalizing and externalizing problems, is addressed as well. Results suggest that violent victimization increases fear of crime, witnessing violence is unrelated to fear, and crime involvement decreases fear. In addition, the study finds that being violently victimized is positively associated with both internalization and externalization, witnessing violence is associated with lower levels of internalization and not associated with externalization, and involvement in violence is associated with neither internalization nor externalization. Fear of crime is not found to mediate any of the relationships between personal experiences with violence and mental health. Limitations of the study are presented, and ideas for future research are addressed. | en_US |
