자녀의 범죄피해에 대한 부모의 두려움

Parent's Fear for Victimization of Their Children

Fear of crime has been one of the major growth areas for both academic research and policy initiatives, because it has negative social consequences beyond a deep-seated sense of personal anxiety. But research on fear of crime has concentrated on personal fear while overlooking the fear that people have for their children in their lives whose safety they value. This study investigates the prevalence, organization, and consequences of parent's fear for victimization of their children. Sample survey and focus group interview data reveal that parent's fear for victimization of their children is more common and often more intense than personal fear. And its distribution differs from that of personal fear in important ways that challenge some long-settled facts about fear of crime. Especially, fear of crime has historically been portrayed as a predominantly female concern, but men are highly susceptible to fear when it comes to their children. On the other hand, the study on parent's fear for victimization of their children help to understand the female fear. As a reaction to parent's fear for victimization of their children, parents educate their children about physical safety, the concrete contents of socialization differ their children's gender. Warning about sexual molestation are an important part of the socialization of girls. Warnings vary from vague insinuation to open comments on the dangers rape and sexual molestation. The concrete contents of female socialization include that the constant threat of sexual violence is inevitable, part of the natural environment, which women can only protect themselves against rather than challenge. Thus female socialization may increase the perceived seriousness of sexual violence, leading to a heightened sense of weakness and vulnerability and provoking considerable fear cf sexual violence even at lower levels of objective risk Also this leads to the imposition of a code of unspoken rules about dress, behavior, lifestyle, sexuality, and female loyalty and passivity in relationships. This suggests that women's higher fear of crime can be, at least in part, explained by female socialization about fear.