Strah pred kriminaliteto

V preteklih desetletjih se je, predvsem v ZDA, kjer so v začetku osemdesetih let doživeli visok porast kriminalitete in kot posledico tudi visok porast strahu pred kriminaliteto, močno povečalo število različnih raziskav in študij s področja strahu pred kriminaliteto. Število različnih opravljenih raziskav na tem področju je močno prispevalo k razumevanju pojava strahu pred kriminaliteto, kljub temu pa ga še dandanes ne poznamo do potankosti. Pri raziskovanju problema so se raziskovalci pogosto spraševali, kaj strah pred kriminaliteto sploh je in kako naj ga merijo. Strah pred kriminaliteto se tako dandanes v modernih družbah kaže kot velik problem, ki celo presega problematiko same kriminalitete. Ker je strah pred kriminaliteto tako zapleten in kompleksen pojav, ki na posameznika vpliva na vedenjski, čustveni in spoznavni ravni, se je njegovo natančno merjenje izkazalo za problematično. Raziskovalci so v svojih študijah preučevali različne vzroke in dejavnike strahu pred kriminaliteto ter za to uporabljali različne metode dela in prihajali do različnih ugotovitev. V diplomskem delu smo najprej želeli predstaviti nekakšno splošno razlago, kaj strah pred kriminaliteto je, teorije, ki iščejo in raziskujejo vzroke za njegov nastanek, ter dejavnike strahu pred kriminaliteto, ki so se v preteklih študijah pokazali kot tisti, ki najbolj vplivajo na njegovo stopnjo. Prikazali smo tudi načine in metode merjenja strahu, ki jih avtorji pri svojem delu najpogosteje uporabljajo. V nadaljevanju smo najprej opravili pregled nekaterih tujih študij, ugotavljali, katere spremenljivke strahu pred kriminaliteto preučujejo, in analizirali rezultate, do katerih so prišle. Pregledali smo tudi za nas pomembnejše študije, ki v svojih raziskavah vključujejo Slovenijo, in analizirali rezultate teh študij. Zanimalo nas je, kaj ugotavljajo tuje in kaj domače študije, kam se uvršča Slovenija po stopnji strahu pred kriminaliteto in kaj vpliva na strah med prebivalci Slovenije v primerjavi z drugimi državami.In last decades the number of different researches and studies done in the field of fear of crime has greatly increased, particularly in the US, where in the early eighties they experienced a high increase in crime and as a result also a high increase in fear of crime. The number of different research carried out in this field of study has strongly contributed to the understanding of the phenomenon of fear of crime, but despite that, many of the details about fear of crime are still unknown. In their studies, the researchers often wondered what fear of crime actually is and how to measure it. In modern society the fear of crime emerges as a big problem, even bigger than the crime itself. The accurate measure of fear of crime proved to be very problematic because of the complexity of fear, which affects individuals on behavioral, emotional and cognitive levels. In their studies the researchers studied different causes and factors of fear of crime, and used different methods, and came to different findings. In our thesis we first wanted to present some kind of general interpretation of what fear of crime actually is, theoris that seek and research reasons for its formation amd factors of it, which have in the past studies shown to have the biggest affect on its level. We also presented some the ways and methods of measuring fear that are most commonly used. Then we conducted a review of some of the foreign studies, assessed which variables of fear of crime were studied and we analyzed the obtained results. Lastly we reviewed the most important studies for our area, those which include Slovenia in their research, and analyzed results of these studies as well. We wanted to determine findings of foreign and domestic studies, where Slovenia is positioned in the world according to the level of fear of crime and what factors have the most impact on level of fear of crime among Slovenian citizens