https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1633-3809
![Sample our Politics & International Relations journals, sign in here to start your FREE access for 14 days]({"type":"image" , "src" : "/sda/5947/TOC-Subject-Sample-2021-Politics-International-Relations.jpg"})
Abstract
Even though the measurement of fear of crime in criminological research commenced a few decades ago, specific populations, such as social activists, remain undocumented. This article is an attempt to address this gap. A study was conducted among 153 social activists involved in exposing corruption and irregularities that take place in the government system in India. This article explores the gap between the fear of crime and actual victimization among the specific social activists in India. The results indicate activists expressed moderate fear of any one form of victimization including verbal and emotional, physical, and sexual victimization. It was also found that one-third of them have reported facing some form of abuse. The research implications are discussed.
Notes
1 See Hale, “Fear of Crime: A Review of the Literature;” Lee, “Inventing fear of crime.” 79–81.
2 See Ibid., 112; see Farral et al., “Questioning the Measurement of the ‘Fear of Crime’,” 658–79. Ferraro and LaGrang, “The Measurement of Fear of Crime,” 70–97 ; Vanderveen, “Interpreting fear, crime, risk and unsafety,” 70–97.
3 See Cross and Lee, “Exploring Fear of Crime for Those Targeted by Romance Fraud,” 735–55.
4 See Ferraro and LaGrang, “The Measurement of Fear of Crime,” 77–81; Wurf, Staalduinen and Stringer, “Fear of Crime in Residential Environments,” 142–160.
5 See Ackah, “Fear of Crime among an Immigrant Population,” 569; Chockalingam and Srinivasan, “Fear of Crime Victimization,” 89–117; Russo and Roccato, “How Long Does Victimization Foster,” 960–74; Cook and Fox, “Fear of Property Crime,” 684–700; Grubb and Bouffard, “The Interrelationships between Victimization,” 353–85; Chataway, and Hart, “A Social-Psychological Process,” 143–64.
6 See Warr, “Fear of Victimization and Sensitivity to Risk,” 29–46; Valentine, “The Geography of Women’s Fear,” 385–90; Pain, “Gender, Race, Age and Fear in the City,” 899–913; Sutton, “Gender, Socially Desirable Responding,” 212–24; Fisher and Sloan, “Unraveling the Fear of Victimization among College Women,” 633–59.
7 See Choi and Merlo, “Gender Identification and the Fear of Crime,” 126–47.
8 See Schafer, Huebner and Bynum, “Fear of Crime and Criminal Victimization,” 285–301; Franklin and Franklin, “Predicting Fear of Crime,” 83–106.
9 See Hart, Chataway and Mellberg., “Measuring Fear of Crime during,” 1019–88.
10 See Chockalingam and Srinivasan, “Fear of Crime Victimization,” 112.
11 See Patel and Mishra, “Fear of Crime amongst Elders in India,” 36–45; Rashmi and Rai, “Fear of Victimization and Women Fears Capes,” 203–12.
12 See Ibid., 42; Ferraro and LaGrang, “The Measurement of Fear of Crime,” 80; Chockalingam and Srinivasan “Fear of Crime Victimization,” 101–14; Menjívar and Bejarano, “Latino Immigrants’ Perceptions of Crime,” 120–48; Cook and Fox “Fear of Property Crime,” 692 ; Lien, Zhao and Longmire “Specific Crime–Fear Linkage,” 13–34.
13 See Alinsky, “Rules for radicals: A practical primer for realistic radicals,” 116–125.
14 See Brenman, and Sanchez “Social Activism,” 6012–17.
15 See Ibid., 6013.
16 See Ibid., 6015.
17 Ray and Katzenstein, “Social Movements in India,” 21.
18 See Kumar and Rai, “Right to know: A hands-on guide to the RTI act,” 13.
19 See Central Information Commission, Rep. Annual Report 2021–22.
20 This act was adopted by the Indian Parliament in the year 2014 but has not yet been implemented to date.
22 See Ibid.
23 See Mishra, “Rep. Research Report on "Death for Data.”
24 See Sanjeev, “Rep. Study on Constraints Faced by RTI Activists,” 1–53.
26 See Hindelang, Gottfredson, and Garofalo, “Victims of personal crime,” 683.
27 See Warr, “Fear of Victimization and Sensitivity to Risk,” 29–46.
28 See Curtin and McGarity, “Expanding on Psychological,” 234.
29 Fear of Victimization was measured using eleven items. Out of these, three factors were found to be fear of psychological victimization, fear of physical victimization, and fear of sexual victimization. A detailed tool is given at the end of the paper.
30 See Chockalingam and Srinivasan, “Fear of Crime Victimization,” 97.
31 See Ibid., 109–112; Ferraro and LaGrang, “The Measurement of Fear of Crime,” 79; Menjívar and Bejarano, “Latino Immigrants’ Perceptions of Crime,” 140; Cook and Fox, “Fear of Property Crime,” 685; Lien, Zhao and Longmire, “Specific Crime–Fear Linkage,” 21; Patel and Mishra, “Fear of Crime amongst Elders in India,” 42; Grubb and Bouffard, “The Interrelationships between Victimization,” 374.
32 See Chockalingam and Srinivasan, “Fear of Crime Victimization,” 109; Ferraro and LaGrang, “The Measurement of Fear of Crime,” 84; Pain, “Gender, Race, Age and Fear in the City,” 911; Fisher and Sloan, “Unraveling the Fear of Victimization among College Women,” 635.
Additional information
Notes on contributors
Michael L. Valan
Michael L. Valan, Assistant Professor, Jindal Global Law School, OP Jindal Global University, India.
Rohan Nahar
Rohan Nahar, Social Activist and Criminologist, India. Email: [email protected]
Charisse T.M. Coston
Charisse T.M. Coston, Associate Professor, Department of Criminal Justice and Criminology, The University of North Carolina at Charlotte, Charlotte, NC, USA. E-mail: [email protected]