Do victims of crime fear crime more? Empirical evidence from the Survey of Living Conditions (2005) of Trinidad and Tobago

This paver uses micro-level data from the Survey of Living Conditions (2005) to examine an ongoing research question related to whether the victims of crime fear crime more than non-victims. To a lesser extent we also explore some of the social and economic factors that impacts on perceived fear of crime through the use of probit models. Our results indicate that people's fear of crime does appear to reflect whether they themselves were victims of crime. However, we go beyond the existing literature to suggest that victimization matters when individuals did not report the crime to the police or reported it but the police took no action. Thus, our study has direct policy implications on the role of police effectiveness in reducing the fear of crime.