Elsevier

Social Science & Medicine

Volume 168, November 2016, Pages 30-34
Social Science & Medicine

Short communication
Does heightened fear of crime lead to poorer mental health in new suburbs, or vice versa?

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.socscimed.2016.09.004Get rights and content

Highlights

  • Few studies test the causal relationship between fear of crime and mental health.

  • Does fear of crime lead to poorer mental health, or could the reverse apply?

  • Longitudinal models provide support for a bi-directional relationship.

  • Temporal models show earlier mental health impacts on subsequent fear of crime.

  • The relationship appears to be direct, and rather than via avoidance behaviours.

Abstract

Fear of crime is implicated as a risk factor for poorer mental health, yet few studies have explored whether there is a causal relationship between fear of crime and health, or tested the direction of the relationship. Does, for example, heightened fear of crime lead to poorer mental health, or could poorer mental health exacerbate fear of crime? RESIDE participants in Perth, Australia, completed a questionnaire three years after moving to their neighbourhood (2007–2008, n = 1230), and again four years later (2011–2012, n = 531). The impact of fear of crime on psychological distress (Kessler-6) was examined in SAS using the Proc Mixed procedure (marginal repeated measures model with unrestricted variance pattern). Models controlled for demographics and time, and progressively adjusted for avoidance behaviours (i.e., walking, community participation, social cohesion). This approach was repeated with psychological distress as the independent variable and fear of crime as the outcome. For each increase in one standard deviation (SD) in fear of crime, psychological distress increased by 0.680 (p = 0.0001), however in the reversed models, for each one SD increase in psychological distress, fear of crime increased by 0.152 (p = 0.0001). To help explain these results, temporal order models examined whether baseline values predicted follow-up values. There was a significant association between psychological distress (at baseline) and fear of crime (at follow-up), but no association between fear of crime (at baseline) and psychological distress (at follow-up). The findings suggest a bi-directional relationship exists between fear of crime and mental health, however it appears that higher psychological distress over time leads to higher fear of crime, rather than the reverse. Furthermore, the pathway connecting fear of crime and mental health appears to be direct, rather than via constrained social and physical activities.

Section snippets

Background

Crime and fear of crime are intertwined with health. Studies identify somewhat consistent associations between higher levels of fear of crime and poorer general health (Ross, 1993, Chandola, 2001), mental health (Whitley and Prince, 2005, Green et al., 2002, Roberts et al, 2012), physical functioning and quality of life (Stafford, 2007). However, the theoretical pathways that link fear of crime and health, and the direction of this relationship, are not well understood (Lorenc et al., 2012).

Study context

The RESIDential Environments (RESIDE) Project is a longitudinal study of people building houses and relocating to 73 new housing developments, spread across 48 suburbs in Perth, Western Australia. All people building homes in the study areas were invited to participate by the state water authority following the land transfer transaction (response rate 33.4%). Participants completed a self-report questionnaire before they moved into their home (n = 1813), and on three occasions after relocation

Results

There were few differences between participants who completed both the baseline and follow-up surveys and those who completed baseline only (Table 1), indicating that participant attrition was not selective. The mean values for the key variables were stable across the time-points, with participants on average reporting they were between ‘a little’ and ‘somewhat’ fearful (i.e., mean fear of crime scores at baseline and follow-up = 2.6) and were unlikely to have a mental illness (i.e., mean K6

Discussion

For this sample of suburban residents, we found longitudinal evidence of a positive association between fear of crime and psychological distress, and a positive association between psychological distress and fear of crime. To elucidate the direction of the causal pathway, we ran temporal order models to test whether, for example, fear of crime at an earlier time-point was independently associated with psychological distress at a later time-point, adjusted for psychological distress at the

Conclusion

This study addresses the lack of empirical evidence on the causal relationship between fear of crime and health, and contributes to the debate on the direction of the relationship and mechanisms linking fear and health. Longitudinal models revealed a bi-directional association between fear of crime and mental health, where each impacts on the other, but temporal models suggested a single causal pathway, with psychological distress leading to heightened fear of crime. Engagement with the local

Acknowledgements

RESIDE was funded by grants from the Western Australian Health Promotion Foundation (Healthway) (#11828), the Australian Research Council (ARC) (#LP0455453) and supported by a National Health & Medical Research Council (NHMRC) Capacity Building Grant (#458688). SF is supported by an ARC Discovery Early Career Researcher Award (#DE160100140), PH by a NHMRC CRE in Healthy Liveable Communities postdoctoral fellowship (#1061404), and BGC by a NHMRC Principal Research Fellowship (#1004900).

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