ECOLOGICAL ASSESSMENTS OF COMMUNITY DISORDER - THEIR RELATIONSHIP TO FEAR OF CRIME AND THEORETICAL IMPLICATIONS

Researchers suggest that feal of crime arises from community disorder cues in the social and physical environment that are distinct from cri me itself Three ecological methods of measuring community disorder are presented: resident perceptions reported in surveys and on-site obser vations by trained raters, both aggregated to the street block level, and content analysis of crime- and disorder-related newspaper articles aggregated to the neighborhood level. Each method demonstrated adequa te reliability and roughly equal ability to predict subsequent fear of crime among 412 residents of 50 blocks in 50 neighborhoods in Baltimo re, MD, Pearson and partial correlations (controlling for sex, race, a ge, and victimization) were calculated at multiple levels of analysis: individual, individual deviation from block, and community (block/nei ghborhood). Hierarchical linear models provided comparable results und er more stringent conditions Results linking different measures of dis order with Seat, and individual and aggregated demographics with fear inform theories about fear of crime and extend research on the impact of community social and physical disorder. Implications for ecological assessment of community social and physical environments are discusse d.