A Neighborhood Business Area is Hurting: Crime, Fear of Crime, and Disorders Take their Toll

Neighborhood businesses are essential to the social and economic viability of a community. Research on the effects of crime, fear of crime, and physical and social disorders has focused primarily on the residential area and has ignored the neighborhood business area. This note presents an argument for further research to redress this imbalance and offers survey results from one neighborhood business area that suggest that crime, fear, and disorders are perceived by small business proprietors and landowners to be serious problems. Results indicate that victimization is frequent and has negative financial and operational effects on business.