Investigating the effect of social media consumption, neuroticism, attitudes towards police and gender on fear of crime in adults.

Maddison, Michael (2018) Investigating the effect of social media consumption, neuroticism, attitudes towards police and gender on fear of crime in adults. Manchester Metropolitan University. (Unpublished)

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Abstract

Fear of crime (FOC) is a compelling research topic, receiving great interest from psychologists and criminologists alike for many years. Such fear has been associated with low subjective well-being, making it important to understand what constitutes ones FOC. The present study aims to investigate the relationship between gender, social media use, attitudes towards police, neuroticism and FOC. 179 participants were recruited via opportunity sampling, with an age range of 18-83 (Mean = 37.58). The participants each completed a questionnaire, comprised of a collection of modified and replica versions of pre-existing measures, aimed to assess each variable. Following a multiple regression and Pearson correlational analysis, it was found that gender, social media use and neuroticism were significantly correlated with and predictive of FOC, however, attitudes towards police was not. Moreover, an independent t-test found that females had significantly higher levels of FOC than males. The current study supports previous literature looking at contributory factors to FOC, apart from that which considers attitudes towards police. The potential reasons for these findings is discussed.