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Subjective Well-Being and Security pp 149–175Cite as

State of Affliction: Fear of Crime and Quality of Life in South Africa

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Part of the book series: Social Indicators Research Series ((SINS,volume 46))

Abstract

Although fear of crime has featured as a concern among researchers, policymakers and citizens alike in developed countries for several decades, there exist remarkably few empirical studies that investigate the relationship between fear of crime and quality of life. The evidence base in developing countries is especially limited. This chapter assesses the extent and nature of fear of crime in South Africa as well as its impact on subjective well-being. Based on 3,300 respondents sampled in the 2009 South African Social Attitudes Survey, the study represents one of the first non-Western applications of new multiple-item survey measures of fear of crime included in the European Social Survey to derive better estimates of the everyday experience of the fear of crime. The findings reveal that between 50% and 60% of adults exhibit some level of dysfunctional or damaging fear of crime, which portrays South Africans as more fearful than citizens in other parts of the world. Regression analysis supports the conclusion from earlier studies that fear of crime has only a small negative effect on quality of life, accounting for considerably less than 5% of total variance in life satisfaction. The finding by Møller (Soc Indic Res 72(3):263–317, 2005) that those having experienced criminal victimisation are more rather than less satisfied with life compared to non-victims is also confirmed. It is therefore concluded that although worries about crime are expressed by a sizable share of South Africans, many show resilience by not allowing such insecurities and experiences of victimisation to appreciably impact their life satisfaction.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    In this chapter, use has been made of the classification derived by Jackson and Kuha (2010) using the pooled European Social Survey data from Round 3, which was shown to ‘work in consistent and comparable ways in different countries’ with country-level analysis suggesting that the ‘measurement models show reasonable configural equivalence across the 23 countries’ (p.11). Future methodological testing will need to be undertaken to fit a 6-class model using SASAS data exclusively and checking this against the general ESS classification for consistency.

  2. 2.

    Estimates using weighted 2008 SASAS data show a similar pattern, though with some differences at the tail ends of the distribution. In that survey round, 43% of the adult population was unworried, 11% was worried only about one of the two types of crime, 21% was mildly worried, 5% was fairly worried, and 21% was highly worried.

  3. 3.

    The regression model was replicated with the satisfaction-with-life in general variable replacing the Personal Wellbeing Index. The results were virtually identical, both in terms of the coefficients and levels of significance.

  4. 4.

    The Living Standards Measure (LSM) has been used as a proxy for material well-being due to high non-response in the reporting of household income (23% refused or were uncertain), which raised concerns about the variable’s reliability. The LSM is a form of household-level asset index that was developed by the South African Advertising Research Foundation (SAARF) and combines together responses to 29 variables to classify the population into 10 LSM groups, where 10 is the highest and 1 is the lowest. Essentially, the LSM is a wealth measure based on standard of living rather than income. In the analysis presented here, low living standards correspond to LSMs 1–3, medium living standards refer to LSMs 4–6 and high living standards to LSMs 7–10.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Democracy, Governance and Service Delivery Research Programme, Human Sciences Research Council (HSRC), X07, Dalbridge, Durban, 4014, South Africa

    Benjamin J. Roberts

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  1. Benjamin J. Roberts
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Roberts, B.J. (2012). State of Affliction: Fear of Crime and Quality of Life in South Africa. In: Webb, D., Wills-Herrera, E. (eds) Subjective Well-Being and Security. Social Indicators Research Series, vol 46. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-2278-1_7

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