Fear of crimes among university students in malaysia: Analyses of contributing factors

Abstract

Fear of crime has emerged as an issue of concern and perceived as a social problem since it leads to negative effects towards mental and physical wellbeing of an individual. Although this topic has received attention from Western researchers since the mid-1960s, however, not many researches were done on fear of crime in Malaysia. Furthermore, because of the fluctuating nature of crime statistics in the country, together with the perceptions that crime is increasing on a daily basis, this issue is worth researching. Therefore, the objective of this study is to analyse the contributing factors of fear of crime according to gender, types of residential areas, and victimisation effect on the level of fear, level of security, perceived risk of becoming a victim and precautionary behaviours. This study was conducted in a few universities in Malaysia by using a survey method through questionnaires adopted from the Fear of Crime in America Survey that was given to 303 undergraduate Malaysian students. This study shows that female students exhibit a higher level of fear and often adopt precautionary behaviours compared to male students. Students from rural and town areas had a similar level of fear, level of security, perception of risk of becoming a victim, however, students from the town areas used precautionary behaviours more often than students from the rural areas. The study also found no differences in the level of fear, level of security and risk perception among students who had been victimised and who had not been one. This study has provided an insight for more diverse and profound future researches on the issue of fear of crime in Malaysia.