ABSTRACT

Women generally feel more fearful than men. We study this so-called fear-gender gap, by contributing to a growing body of quantitative gender-sensitive research inspired by feminist theory. We depart from traditional quantitative fear of crime research that fails to examine how determinants of fear of crime impact women and men differently. We use a Dutch governmental survey, linked to neighborhood characteristics, to conduct multilevel modeling using multifaceted sociospatial aspects on individual and neighborhood level, to explain the fear-gender gap in the city of Eindhoven. Findings indicate that the sociospatial environment and the perceptions thereof offer insights into gendered differences in fear. A central finding is that fear of crime among women is particularly complex. We discuss the concept of fear of crime, the importance of feminist theory to inform data gathering in order to further future quantitative research on fear of crime, and make suggestions for future research.

摘要

女性通常比男性更感到恐惧。我们通过为越来越多受女权主义理论启发的定量性别敏感研究做出贡献，来研究这种所谓的恐惧与性别差距。我们背离了传统的定量犯罪恐惧研究，该研究未能研究犯罪恐惧的决定因素如何对女性和男性产生不同的影响。我们利用荷兰政府的一项调查，结合社区特征，在个人和社区层面上使用多方面的社会空间方面进行多层次建模，以解释埃因霍温市的恐惧性别差距。研究结果表明，社会空间环境及其认知可以洞察恐惧的性别差异。一个核心发现是，女性对犯罪的恐惧尤其复杂。我们讨论对犯罪的恐惧的概念，