Citation

Warr M, Ellison CG. Am. J. Sociol. 2000; 106(3): 551-578.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2000, University of Chicago Press)

DOI

10.1086/318964

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

Research on fear of crime in the United States has concentrated on personal fear while overlooking the fear that people have for others in their lives-children, spouses, friends-whose safety they value. Sample survey data reveal that altruistic fear (fear for others) has a distinctive structure in family households and is more common and often more intense than personal fear. Many of the everyday precautions practiced by Americans and conventionally assumed to be self-protective appear to be a consequence of altruistic fear. These and other findings underscore the need to understand fear of crime as a social rather than an individual phenomenon.