Social Integration, Fear of Crime, and Life Satisfaction

This study examines the relationship among features of the local community, fear of crime, and subjective well-being. It draws from the community literature on social integration and from stress theory to develop a model linking ecological factors, reported crime, social status characteristics (e.g., race, age, children in the home), and safety precautions to feelings of vulnerability to crime and fear of crime. We then extend the analyses to examine how vulnerability and fear affect life satisfaction (an indicator of subjective well-being) directly and indirectly via mastery. Using data collected in the Los Angeles Metropolitan area and multiple-regression analysis, we find that social integration into the local community significantly reduces feelings of vulnerability and reduces fear of crime. The analyses also show that people living in the suburbs feel much less vulnerable to crime and are much less fearful than residents of Los Angeles County. Finally, feelings of vulnerability and fear of crime have their major impact on life satisfaction indirectly by decreasing people's sense of control over their lives. Policy implications for reducing fear of crime are discussed in the conclusion.