Fear of crime among older people in Hong Kong

Fear of crime amongst older persons has been fairly widely researched in Western societies. Most studies have noted that, despite being at generally lower risk of becoming victims of crime, older persons often exhibit higher levels of fear of crime than other age groups. However, there have been very few studies on subjective interpretation of fear amongst older persons in Asian cities and Chinese societies. Existing studies have utilized quantitative methods to examine possibly causal relationships between fear of crime and its underlying factors but subjective evaluations by older people themselves of factors related to the fear of crime are almost nonexistent. This study aimed to fill a number of gaps by investigating factors related to fear of crime by exploring older persons’ perspectives of their living environments and situations in Hong Kong, a predominantly Chinese, and ageing, society