Risk Perception and Security Attitudes: the Role of Human Values on Brazilian Police Officers and Civilians

Abstract

Studies on crime and parking facilities also appear to have a strong focus on car theft with small emphasis on psychological and cognitive variables to investigate potential crimes in this environment. Furthermore, there is limited literature on such crimes in South America, particularly in Brazil. This study has the objective of offering an instrument to assess risk perception in public and private parking lots of free circulation, as well as to understand and describe how individual values influence this variable regarding civilians’ and police officers’ perception of hazards present in free circulation public and private parking lots. A psychometrically valid risk perception and security attitude scale is presented. The scores of the two groups were predicted by human values. It was observed a mapping of risk situations in parking lots, as well as attitudes that can prevent crimes. Implications for the development of social public safety policies are discussed.