Bonnie S. Fisher

Reporting Sexual Victimization To The Police And Others Results From a National-Level Study of College Women

Beginning with Koss, Gidycz, and Wisniewski’s pathbreaking study, the sexual victimization of female college students has emerged as salient research and policy concern. Building on this earlier work, we used a national, random sample of 4,446 female college students to focus on an issue of continuing importance: the level and determinants of victims’ willingness to report their sexual victimization. The analysis revealed that although few incidents—including rapes—are reported to the police and/or to campus authorities, a high proportion are disclosed to someone else (mainly to friends). Incidents were more likely to be reported to the police when they had characteristics that made them more “believable” (e.g., presence of a weapon or assailant who was a stranger). The use of alcohol and/or drugs by offenders and/or victims had a unique effect, causing students to be more likely to disclose their victimization to friends but not to campus authorities. The implications of the findings for extant debates and for future research are also explored.

Fear of Crime in Relation to Three Exterior Site Features: Prospect, Refuge, and Escape

This article examines fear of crime in relation to exterior site features on a college campus. The authors propose and test a theoretical model that posits that places that afford offenders refuge, and victims limited prospect and escape, will be seen as unsafe. In three studies, the authors observed behavior, obtained responses to site plans and on-site responses to perceptions of safety in relation to exterior campus areas that varied in prospect, refuge, and escape. The findings confirmed that fear of crime was highest in areas with refuge for potential offenders and low prospect and escape for potential victims. In places such as campuses, which have pronounced fear of crime, designs that manipulate prospect, refuge, and escape could reduce the fear of crime, as well as opportunities for crime.

‘Hot spots’ of fear and crime: A multi-method investigation

Abstract Crime and fear of crime concentrate in some areas called ‘hot spots’. Hot spots relate to at least two levels of reference—macro (neighborhood) and micro (proximate). Although the study of macro-level characteristics may uncover broad patterns of fear, it neglects proximate cues that can have direct effects on pedestrian experiences. In areas having macro-level conditions that contribute to a climate of fear, micro-level cues may explain site-specific hot spots of fear. On a university campus with a climate of fear, we examined the effect of three proximate exterior site features (prospect, concealment, and boundedness) on fear of crime, spatial behavior, effectiveness of police surveillance, and reported crime. The research also evaluated the accuracy with which measures of macro-level fears reflected site-specific fears. Hot spots of fear and crime converged at the micro level. Both fear and crime increased in areas characterized by low prospect, high concealment, and high boundedness. Measures of macro-level fears missed site-specific effects. The results suggest that increases in prospect, and decreases in concealment and boundedness may enhance feeling of safety and reduce crime. The discrepancy between macro and micro measures suggests that research and planning should consider both macro- and micro-level factors.

The social context of violent victimization: A study of the delinquent peer effect

Haynies (2001) work on the structural dimensions of peer networks demonstrated how the characteristics of networks may influence individual delinquent behavior. This study extends the network approach to the prediction of violent victimization. The National Longitudinal Survey of Adolescent Health (Add Health) is used to examine how the friendship-network characteristics of centrality, density, and popularity affect vulnerability. The findings indicate that central and popular members of dense conventional groups experienced lower levels of violent victimization, while the opposite was true of similarly situated members of delinquent networks. Implications for victimization and research related to the specification of how delinquent peer associations promote vulnerability are discussed.

Unraveling the fear of victimization among college women: Is the “shadow of sexual assault hypothesis” supported?

Using data on victimization from a national sample of college students, we replicated, refined, and extended Ferraros models to test the “shadow of sexual assault” thesis and to explore factors that heightened womens age-specific fear of rape. We took into account temporal dimensions of crime-specific fear (during the day and at night) and used a domain-specific model. Overall, fear of rape among college women “shadowed” their fear of other personal crimes. Our age-specific results concerning college womens fear of rape largely mirrored Ferraros results for women more generally. Policy implications and directions for future research are discussed.

Evaluation of Green Dot: An Active Bystander Intervention to Reduce Sexual Violence on College Campuses

Using a cross-sectional survey of a random sample of 7,945 college undergraduates, we report on the association between having received Green Dot active bystander behavior training and the frequency of actual and observed self-reported active bystander behaviors as well as violence acceptance norms. Of 2,504 students aged 18 to 26 who completed the survey, 46% had heard a Green Dot speech on campus, and 14% had received active bystander training during the past 2 years. Trained students had significantly lower rape myth acceptance scores than did students with no training. Trained students also reported engaging in significantly more bystander behaviors and observing more self-reported active bystander behaviors when compared with nontrained students. When comparing self-reported active bystander behavior scores of students trained with students hearing a Green Dot speech alone, the training was associated with significantly higher active bystander behavior scores. Those receiving bystander training appeared to report more active bystander behaviors than those simply hearing a Green Dot speech, and both intervention groups reported more observed and active bystander behaviors than nonexposed students.

Specifying the Influence of Family and Peers on Violent Victimization Extending Routine Activities and Lifestyles Theories

The fact that crime and victimization share similar correlates suggests that family and peer contexts are potentially useful for explaining individual differences in violent victimization. In this research, we used routine activities and lifestyles frameworks to reveal how strong bonds of family attachment can promote more effective guardianship while simultaneously making children less attractive as targets and limiting their exposure to motivated offenders. Conversely, the routine activities perspective suggests that exposure to delinquent peers will enhance risk. Using data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (Add Health), we found that family and peer context variables do correspond with a higher risk of violent victimization among teenagers, net controls for unstructured and unsupervised activities and demographic characteristics. The role of family and peer group characteristics in predicting victimization risk suggests new theoretical directions for victimization research.

Public views toward crime and correctional policies: Is there a gender gap?

Differences between men and women in their proximity to crime, moral development, and attitudes toward an array of social issues suggest that a gender gap in crime views may exist. Investigations of this possibility, however, are in short supply. Using a statewide data set and a variety of global and specific questions about crime policy, punishment, and rehabilitation, this study found that men and women tend to hold moderately divergent views. Women tend to express greater support for offender treatment and less support for punishment than men. Implications of these results for the future of correctional and crime policy are discussed.

Being Pursued Online: Applying Cyberlifestyle–Routine Activities Theory to Cyberstalking Victimization

Building upon Eck and Clarke’s (2003) ideas for explaining crimes in which there is no face-to-face contact between victims and offenders, the authors developed an adapted lifestyle–routine activities theory. Traditional conceptions of place-based environments depend on the convergence of victims and offenders in time and physical space to explain opportunities for victimization. With their proposed cyberlifestyle–routine activities theory, the authors moved beyond this conceptualization to explain opportunities for victimization in cyberspace environments where traditional conceptions of time and space are less relevant. Cyberlifestyle–routine activities theory was tested using a sample of 974 college students on a particular type of cybervictimization—cyberstalking. The study’s findings provide support for the adapted theoretical perspective. Specifically, variables measuring online exposure to risk, online proximity to motivated offenders, online guardianship, online target attractiveness, and online deviance were significant predictors of cyberstalking victimization. Implications for advancing cyberlifestyle–routine activities theory are discussed.

Proximate physical cues to fear of crime

Fear of crime is a serious problem on university and college campuses. Although fear has many causes, one potential source of fear may arise from the design of the physical environment. In areas having a climate of fear (from incivilities or other factors), proximate cues in the surroundings may affect feelings of safety. In theory, concealment, blocked prospect into the concealment, and blocked escape contribute to fear. Following one study that tested this theory in a highly atypical building, the present study extended the test to a more typical campus outdoor space. Fear-maps elicited from students were compared with physical indices of concealment, blocked prospect, and escape. As predicted by the model, fear related to the presence of trees, shrubs and walls which provided concealment, limited prospect and blocked escape. The results highlight the importance of the role of uncertainty in environmental response and suggest that reductions in fear and opportunities for crime on campus may be achieved through changes in the character of campus outdoor spaces.