Being fearful of crime is, unfortunately, a common experience. Research shows that many factors influence a person’s fear of crime, demonstrating that certain groups are generally more fearful than others. Even though they are typically young, college students express being fearful of crime on and off campus. What has yet to be investigated is whether college students who attend school in the United States are fearful at similar levels to their Canadian counterparts. Further, the correlates of fear of crime may also be different. To explore these issues, data from the American College Health Association’s National College Health Assessment II survey of U.S. and Canadian college students are used. Results show that Canadian college students generally perceive their safety as being higher than U.S. college students, even though they face elevated victimization risks. Further, some correlates of fear of crime differ for U.S. and Canadian college students. These findings suggest the need for additional cross-national comparative work to see if patterns generalize across contexts.

不幸的是，害怕犯罪是一种常见的经历。研究表明，许多因素会影响一个人对犯罪的恐惧，这表明某些群体通常比其他群体更害怕。尽管他们通常很年轻，但大学生表达了对校园内外犯罪的恐惧。尚待调查的是，在美国上学的大学生是否与加拿大的大学生有相似程度的恐惧。此外，对犯罪恐惧的相关性也可能不同。为了探讨这些问题，我们使用了来自美国大学健康协会对美国和加拿大大学生进行的全国大学健康评估 II 调查的数据。结果显示，加拿大大学生普遍认为自己的安全高于美国大学生，即使他们面临更高的受害风险。此外，美国和加拿大大学生对犯罪恐惧的一些相关性有所不同。这些发现表明，需要进行额外的跨国比较工作，以了解模式是否可以跨环境推广。