Theorizing fear of crime: beyond the rational/irrational opposition

Much has been written about the 'social problem' of fear of crime in the cr iminological and sociological literature in recent years. We would argue th at thus far in this literature, however, there has been too much emphasis o n the question 'How rational is people's fear of crime?', a question that l argely reduces the complexity of, the phenomenon and positions a 'biased' l ay response against an 'expert' objective judgment. In this article, we rev iew different epistemological perspectives that can be offer ed to understa nd in greater depth the fear of dime phenomenon. We place particular emphas is on those hermeneutic perspectives es that go beyond die models of the ra tionalist, individualistic subject to exploring issues of symbolic represen tation, discourse and the micro - and macro-contexts in which fear of crime is experienced and given meaning. We also draw upon two case studies from our own empirical research into fear of crime, conducted with the intention of exploring the situated narratives, cultural representations and differe nt levels of symbolic meaning that contribute to the dynamic constitution o f fear.