Citation

Swartz K, Reyns BW, Henson B, Wilcox P. Youth Violence Juv. Justice 2011; 9(1): 59-78.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2011, SAGE Publishing)

DOI

10.1177/1541204010374606

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

This study explores gendered and age-graded effects of key theoretical predictors of fear of crime among a panel of approximately 4,000 public middle and high school students in Kentucky. Theoretically, fear of school crime is presumed to be driven by individual-level indicators of vulnerability, as well as by school-level indicators of crime/disorder and social integration. Multilevel analysis revealed little effect of school-level contextual factors, whereas the key individual-level indicators of vulnerability were quite robust in their effects across male and female students. Further analysis, however, revealed that school context in the form of school-level delinquency significantly moderated the effect of individual-level perceived risk of victimization on fear for female students especially. Results provided little evidence of age-dependent correlates. In one exception, the positive effect of perceived risk of victimization on both male and female student fear declined, as students moved from the 7th grade to the 10th grade.