Fear of Crime

Introduction
Fear of Crime in members of our society today has been widely researched. For the purpose of this essay, fear of crime is used in the context of an individual’s perceived risk of becoming a victim of crime. In this essay it is argued that the elderly and the youngest members of our society are the most fearful of crime and that, of these age groups the elderly have the lowest risk of becoming victims of crime. Firstly, research shows that fear of crime is wide spread and that certain age groups are more fearful of becoming victims than others. Secondly, that the Media’s portrayal of crimes contributes to society’s perceptions of safety and crime itself, increasing fear of crime in these age groups. Thirdly, that the Elderly fears of crime and perceived risk of victimisation is also contributed to by social and physiological factors, such as vulnerability that leads to altered lifestyle changes. Data confirms that levels of victimisation rates are low for the elderly but high for the young, which is in contrast to those in the elderly age group having heightened levels of fear. In conclusion, fear of crime is becoming a serious societal issue as our population ages being that the elderly are becoming the most fearful of crime whilst the youngest age group with the highest fear are most likely to become victims of crime.
Discussion
Firstly, we see that in modern society today that a growing fear of crime is widely recognised. It is acknowledged that the elderly aged 65 and over, and the youngest members aged 16 - 24 of our society have the highest fear of crime in comparison to other age groups(Johnson, 2005). Australia has an aging population (James, 1992 p.1), for those 85 and over numbers has doubled and there are increased numbers of those aged 65 and over. The last twenty years spanning from 1990 to 2010 has seen the number of elderly people in our society increase by 170%; in comparison to around 30% for total population growth for

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