Fear of Violent Crime: Should You Be More Afraid of A Stranger or Your Neighbor

Whether you're watching the news or scrolling through social media, you are bound to hear about violent crimes. The constant reminder strikes fear within individuals. What many do not realize is that specific individuals are more susceptible to the fear of violent crime than others. Within this paper, I determine how social media usage, level of education, and gender impact an individual's fear of being murdered by either a stranger or someone they know. To do this, I used the Chapman Survey of American Fears. This survey was conducted on a national sample of adults in the U.S. through a series of questions regarding their fears. I found that individuals who tend to have higher levels of social media usage have a higher fear of being murdered. Additionally, I also found that people with higher levels of education have less fear of being murdered than people with less education. Finally, I found that women have higher rates of fear of being murdered than men will. I found a weak positive correlation regarding all of my independent variables and fear of violent crime committed by a stranger as well as someone the victim knows. Finally, the majority of individuals were more afraid of a stranger versus someone they knew. Our society is filled with information regarding getting murdered, but there is a lack of research in the field regarding the fear of being murdered. By understanding which groups of individuals have higher levels of fear regarding being murdered, we are able to use this information to break the stigma and aid individuals in feeling more secure.