Assessing the Risk of Crime Victimization: The Integration of Personal Victimization Experience and Socially Transmitted Information

To adapt effectively to environmental hazards such as the risk of crime victimization, individuals should not rely solely upon their direct personal experience. Instead, they should use information about the environment gained from others' experiences in estimating risks and in determining the appropriate type and number of behaviors to undertake in order to avoid victimization. Such information can come either through social networks (i.e., through talking to friends, family, or neighbors) or via the mass media (newspapers, television, radio, magazines, and pamphlets). Although experiences conveyed by family, friends, and neighbors have been found to influence risk estimates and prevention behaviors, mass media experiences have not been found to influence such judgments or behaviors. This lack of mass media influence has been found both in studies of naturally occurring crime‐risk judgments and in evaluations of media campaigns, such as the recent national campaign urging citizens to “take a bite out of crime.” This paper reviews the literature concerning the influence of indirect experiences upon fear of crime, with a focus on trying to understand why citizens fail to use the mass media as a source of information about personal crime risk.