Worry about Crime among European Citizens: Model-Assisted Measurement using European Social Survey Data

Abstract

This paper examines new measures of fear of crime fielded in the European Social Survey. We use an analytical approach that combines statistical latent class modelling with pragmatic choices for the final classification of the responses into a six-category measure. We undertake an informal examination of the latent class solution in individual countries, and we show that frequency and impact indicators are reliable cross-national indicators (with configural or construct validity) of the experience of negative emotions about crime in people’s lives. Our subsequent estimation of levels of worry in 23 European countries sheds important light on the psychological patterning of worry about crime across Europe.