To Örebro University

oru.seÖrebro University Publications
Change search
CiteExportLink to record
Permanent link

Direct link
Cite
Citation style
  • apa
  • ieee
  • modern-language-association-8th-edition
  • vancouver
  • Other style
More styles
Language
  • de-DE
  • en-GB
  • en-US
  • fi-FI
  • nn-NO
  • nn-NB
  • sv-SE
  • Other locale
More languages
Output format
  • html
  • text
  • asciidoc
  • rtf
Beyond Fear of Crime: Exploring the True Worries of Older Adults in the Context of Fear of Crime and Vulnerability in Sweden
Örebro University, School of Behavioural, Social and Legal Sciences.ORCID iD: 0000-0002-1576-5079
Örebro University, School of Behavioural, Social and Legal Sciences.ORCID iD: 0009-0002-7034-2068
Örebro University, School of Behavioural, Social and Legal Sciences.ORCID iD: 0000-0003-0590-8600
Örebro University, School of Behavioural, Social and Legal Sciences.ORCID iD: 0000-0001-6231-8477
Show others and affiliations
2025 (English)In: European Journal on Criminal Policy and Research, ISSN 0928-1371, E-ISSN 1572-9869Article in journal (Refereed) Epub ahead of print
Abstract [en]

The current study examines the relative importance of fear of crime and its three aspects—affective, behavioral, and cognitive—in relation to frailty (daily activities, health problems, psychosocial functioning), news consumption, trust in neighborhood, and perceptions of rising crime among older adults in a mid-sized Swedish municipality. Using logistic regression, we analyzed data from a subsample of 336 participants from a Swedish cross-sectional study of adults aged 65 and older (mean age = 76.62; age range = 64 to 106 years). Contrary to the common portrayal of older adults as highly fearful of crime, our findings reveal that their primary worries are more closely linked to health problems, social isola-tion, and other personal vulnerabilities than to fear of crime. Trust in the neighborhood is associated with lower levels of the affective and behavioral aspects of fear of crime. Conversely, perceptions of rising crime are positively related to the affective and behavioral aspects of fear. Health problems and problems in psychosocial functioning are positively linked to the affective aspect. Further, problems in psychosocial functioning are positively related to the behavioral aspect. Overall, while crime is a worry, it is overshadowed by more immediate health and social issues.

Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
Springer, 2025.
Keywords [en]
Relevance of fear, Fear of crime, Perceived risk, Avoidant behavior, Frailty, Older adults
National Category
Criminology
Identifiers
URN: urn:nbn:se:oru:diva-121913DOI: 10.1007/s10610-025-09631-2ISI: 001516490700001Scopus ID: 2-s2.0-105008905084OAI: oai:DiVA.org:oru-121913DiVA, id: diva2:1977015
Funder
Örebro UniversityAvailable from: 2025-06-25 Created: 2025-06-25 Last updated: 2026-01-23Bibliographically approved

Open Access in DiVA

No full text in DiVA

Other links

Publisher's full textScopus

Authority records

Doyle, MariaBood, FridaFrogner, LouiseGolovchanova, NadezhdaHellfeldt, Karin

Search in DiVA

By author/editor
Doyle, MariaBood, FridaFrogner, LouiseGolovchanova, NadezhdaHellfeldt, Karin
By organisation
School of Behavioural, Social and Legal Sciences
In the same journal
European Journal on Criminal Policy and Research
Criminology

Search outside of DiVA

GoogleGoogle Scholar

doi
urn-nbn

Altmetric score

doi
urn-nbn
Total: 217 hits
CiteExportLink to record
Permanent link

Direct link
Cite
Citation style
  • apa
  • ieee
  • modern-language-association-8th-edition
  • vancouver
  • Other style
More styles
Language
  • de-DE
  • en-GB
  • en-US
  • fi-FI
  • nn-NO
  • nn-NB
  • sv-SE
  • Other locale
More languages
Output format
  • html
  • text
  • asciidoc
  • rtf