Citation

Smolej M, Kivivuori J. J. Scan. Stud. Criminology Crime Prev. 2006; 7(2): 211-227.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2006, Informa - Taylor and Francis Group)

DOI

10.1080/14043850601002429

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

In this article, we explore the relationship between the use of crime news and fear of violence through multivariate analyses. Our main objective is to examine whether exposure to crime news is related to avoidance behaviour and fear of crime when personal and vicarious victimization experiences, as well as a number of other relevant factors, are held constant. Using the 2003 sweep of the Finnish National Victimization Surveys, we focus on two types of crime news exposure: exposure to crime-related tabloid headlines, and the scope of exposure to different sources of crime news. Our main finding is that reading tabloid front pages is associated with both avoidance behaviour and with higher levels of worry about becoming a victim of violence. We also found that people who expose themselves to many sources of crime news are more likely to fear violence. As an interesting by-product of our analyses, we observed that being unemployed was quite strongly associated with fear of violence.