Individuals With High Fear Of Crime Twice As Likely To Suffer From Depression, UK

A new UCL (University College London) study has shown that people with a
strong fear of crime are almost twice as likely to show symptoms of
depression. The research, based on data taken from the Whitehall II
study*, also shows that fear of crime is associated with decreased
physical functioning and lower quality of life. The findings are published
in the American Journal of Public Health.



The study's lead author, Dr Mai Stafford, UCL Epidemiology & Public
Health, said: "Very broadly, these results show that if your fear of crime
levels are higher, your health is likely to be worse - particularly your
mental health. Of course, you might expect that people who are depressed
or frail might be more afraid of crime and venturing out of doors, so we
have taken account of previous mental health problems and physical frailty
and adjusted for those accordingly. Even with a level playing field, the
data still demonstrates this strong link between fear of crime and poorer
mental health.



"What's also key here is that the 6,500 participants were not very
elderly - they were all aged between 50 and 75, many were still working,
and they're generally a pretty healthy group of people. Overall, the data
strongly suggests not simply that people who are vulnerable due to their
health or age are more frightened, but that being frightened of crime is
in itself contributing to their poor mental health and quality of life."



Alongside a comprehensive medical examination, study participants were
asked to report on how worried they felt about crime. They rated their
concern on a scale from 'not worried' to 'very worried', about particular
events happening in their neighbourhood: their home being broken into,
being mugged or robbed, their car being stolen or things being stolen from
the car, and being raped.



The researchers then compared the results with data collected about their
mental and physical health - symptoms of anxiety and depression, physical
function, and quality of life. After adjusting for age, gender, employment
grade, length of residence and previous mental health status, researchers
found that participants with a high fear of crime were 1.93 times as
likely to exhibit symptoms of depression and 1.75 times as likely to
exhibit symptoms of anxiety, than those reporting low fear of crime. These
people exercised less, saw friends less often and participated in fewer
social activities compared with less fearful participants.



Dr Stafford explains that: "Things that influence our behaviour influence
our health. One behavioural response to fear of crime is avoidance, so in
this case fear of crime may stop some people taking part in the physical
and social activities that are so good for health and wellbeing. If you
are fearful, you are less willing to go out socially and less inclined to
take physical activity. This impacts heavily on people's mental health and
overall quality of life, as well as having an impact on their physical
health, albeit less pronounced. It seems likely that if we work to reduce
fear of crime, we could actually improve people's health."
















Commenting on the findings**, Professor Gloria Laycock, UCL Jill Dando
Institute of Crime Science, said: "Research does suggest that irrespective
of recorded crime levels, public perceptions are that crime is on the
increase. Even though data from the British Crime Survey (BCS) shows that
crime has fallen in the last decade, people believe that crime is rising -
around two in three people believe that crime nationally has increased in
the last two years and two in five people think that crime in their local
area has increased.



"It is very interesting that people's perceptions of overall crime remain
out of kilter with the figures and that these perceptions could actually
have a significant impact on health. We must do more to educate people
about the realities of their vulnerability to crime, as well as taking
action to reduce fear of crime on a local and national level. For example,
we need to look at the ways in which crime is reported in the national and
local press and be sure to avoid sensationalism."



1. *The 'Whitehall II' study originates from the first Whitehall study of
18,000 men in the Civil Service, set up in 1967. The first Whitehall study
showed that men in the lowest employment grades were much more likely to
die prematurely than men in the highest grades. The Whitehall II
longitudinal study was set up to determine what underlies the social
gradient in death and disease and to include women.


2. **Please note that professor Gloria Laycock was not involved in this
research, and is solely giving comment on its findings


3. Statistics are taken from the report Crime in England and Wales
2006/07. The summary document can be found
here.




About UCL



Founded in 1826, UCL was the first English university established after
Oxford and Cambridge, the first to admit students regardless of race,
class, religion or gender, and the first to provide systematic teaching of
law, architecture and medicine. In the government's most recent Research
Assessment Exercise, 59 UCL departments achieved top ratings of 5* and 5,
indicating research quality of international excellence.



UCL is the fourth-ranked UK University in the 2006 league table of the top
500 world Universities produced by the Shanghai Jiao Tong University. UCL
alumni include Mahatma Gandhi (Laws 1889, Indian political and spiritual
leader); Jonathan Dimbleby (Philosophy 1969, writer and television
presenter); Alexander Graham Bell (Phonetics 1860s, inventor of the
telephone), and members of the band Coldplay.

University College London