Aging, neighborhood attachment, and fear of crime: Testing reciprocal effects

This study attempts to examine the reciprocal effects between fear of crime and neighborhood attachment because aging is a critical factor in both discussions of fear of crime and neighborhood attachment (friendship, neighboring, social cohesion and trust, informal social control, and participation in neighborhood watch program). Using data from the Project on Human Development across 343 Chicago neighborhoods, this study tests the impact of aging combined with five measures of neighborhood attachment on fear of crime. Our analyses confirm that all five interaction variables are insignificant in explaining fear of crime. In contrast, this study tests another argument that aging coupled with fear of crime (urban elderly's fear of crime) affects neighborhood attachment. The findings show that rising fear of crime among urban elderly residents helps increase their interactions with neighbors (neighboring) and their perceived level of social cohesion to and trust of neighbors. In short, this study supports a model where an interaction predictor of aging and fear of crime increases neighborhood attachment.