Fear can deteriorate communities and erode the quality of life of residents. Some fear of crime literature argues that the police can be a tool for addressing residents' fear. However, the exact mechanism through which the police affect fear remains unknown. Using data from the 2013 Korean Crime Victim Survey, we examine the potential role that confidence in the police can play in explaining residents' fear of crime. Our findings suggest that confidence in the police mediates the relationship between some traditional indicators (i.e., informal social control) of fear. However, the persistent effects of other variables (i.e., gender) remain after accounting for confidence in the police. We discuss the implications of these findings for theory, future research, and public policy.

恐惧会使社区恶化并侵蚀居民的生活质量。一些关于犯罪恐惧的文献认为，警察可以成为解决居民恐惧的工具。然而，警方影响恐惧的确切机制仍然未知。使用 2013 年韩国犯罪受害者调查的数据，我们研究了对警察的信心在解释居民对犯罪的恐惧方面可以发挥的潜在作用。我们的研究结果表明，对警察的信心在某些传统的恐惧指标（即非正式的社会控制）之间起到中介作用。然而，在考虑对警察的信心后，其他变量（即性别）的持续影响仍然存在。我们讨论了这些发现对理论、未来研究和公共政策的影响。