The Effects of Violent Crime Media on College Students’ Fear of Crime

Abstract:

Previous literature indicated that fear of crime can develop through overconsumption of the media. Fear of crime is the ideology that crime rates are rising in a specific area, while the rates are the same or going down. Specifically, this design focuses on how various media sources may affect different individuals’ fear of crime. Participants from Penn State Behrend completed a voluntary online survey with multiple Likert-scale questions to accurately gauge their fear of crime. The hypothesis was that higher levels of crime news in the media will be associated with higher levels of fear of crime. In addition, low economic status among college students was expected to increase the chance of developing a fear of crime. The results illustrated a positive correlation between social media exposure to crime, level of crime experienced, and fear of crime. The results did not find economic status to have a positive correlation with fear of crime. Limitations of this study include questions that were not asked that could influence the participants’ fear of crime, such as information regarding their local police force. Likewise, the questions did not cover the surrounding environments of participants, such as the locations around the campuses and other threatening stimuli in the environment. This study paved the way for future research into fear of crime and can be used as a basis for future research involving college students’ fear of crime. This will be an oral presentation.