Elderly Women and Fear of Violent Crime: The Least Likely Victims?

This article assesses existing explanations of the relationship between the risk and fear of crime amongst elderly people. These have tended to assume an incongruity between levels of fear and the chances of victimization. It is argued that the significance of gender has previously been understated, and that the temporal and spatial parameters to conceptualizations of 'risk' have been unduly narrow. In a recent study, elderly women were no more concerned about violent crime than younger women, and the nature of their concerns bore closer relation to risk. .Moreover, it is contended that domestic violence against elderly people is considerably more prevalent than is generally acknowledged. It is argued that age structured relationships be retained in analyses of fear of crime as a determinant of actual rather than perceived risk. (Abstract Adapted from Source: British Journal of Criminology, 1995.