Income inequality and fear of crime across the European region

This paper aims to take a holistic approach on studying fear of crime bytesting predictors at multiple levels of analyses. Data from the EuropeanSocial Survey (N = 56,752 from 29 countries) were used to test andextend the Income Inequality and Sense of Vulnerability Hypotheses. Thefindings confirm that (1) individuals in societies with greater incomeinequalities are more fearful of crime, and (2) older or disabled people aswell as women report greater fear of crime. Contrary to the hypotheses,ethnic majority and not ethnic minority members report greater fear ofcrime, if they reside in high income inequality countries. It is furtherdemonstrated that fear of crime explains the inverse association betweenincome inequality and subjective well-being in this particular subsample