Perceived fear of victimization among the adult population of Karachi City

Background

Every man experiences the emotion of fear. The word fear is used without difficulty in everyday language to mean the experience of apprehension. For the present concern, fear has been selected because many people fear crime and react with apprehension to it. One reason for studying crime, then, is because people wish to know more about what they fear, the condition under which the fear rises and falls, and the types, persons who fear crime more or less.

The research establishes that it is not the experience of crime alone that determines the fear of it. Infact, there is a tendency for those who fear crime, probably elderly and women more.

In this prospective research, an initial comparison shall be made to compare the official crime statistics with the perceived crime (statistics) of the sample (adult males and females both). Special emphasis would be given to assess the crimes occured in the city of Karachi during the period of 1990–2005. An attempt shallbe made to explore out which groups in the community are afraid of crime and what are they afraid of and from whom? Are all types of people equally afraid of crime like interms of Age, Gender and Socio-economic status? Later on, the impact of percieved crime risk on the quality of life among adult population Of the Karachi City will be explored out. A suitable statistics like Regression modeling or Predictive modeling shall be used to furnish the research with the statistical treatment of results/ findings.

Materials and methods

Research Design

In the prospective research, an initial comparison shall be made to compare the official crime statistics with the perceived crime (statistics) of the sample. Special emphasis would be given to assess the crimes occurred in the city of Karachi during the period of 1990–2005. The exiting data would be analysed on the basis of following parameters: Type and nature of crimes; Place (location) of crime (on the basis of the police station jurisdictions/adminstrative division of Karachi City; Number of arrests made; personal victimization; personal knowledge of others' victimization; the resources available to deal with a potential threat (resources include health, living quarters, and neighborhood assistance, to name a few); Demographic variables (Age, genders, education level, socio-economic status etc.) will be controlled.

Research Questions

Since to the best of researchers knowledge, this type of research is the first kind of its sort in Pakistan, therefore certain questions are framed to analyze the topic: Which groups in the community are afraid of crime, what are they afraid of and from whom? Are all types of people equally afraid of crime like in terms of Age, Gender and Socio-Economic Status? In what context are they afraid of crime, e.g. are people more or less afraid of crime in the home or in public places? What is the relationship between being fearful in general and fear of crime? What is the relationship between being fearful of crime and the likelihood of becoming a victim? How does fear of crime affect on the quality of life among adult population? What is known about the tools that measure fear of crime, and the effectiveness of these tools interms of reliability and whether they affect the fear of crime?

This prospective research study, shall based in the Karachi region (cosmopolitan city and Business capital of Pakistan) of Sindh province, utilised two major sources of data — a household crime perception survey and detailed unpublished reported crime data — in order to examine and identify the factors which influence crime perceptions. Study areas will be selected according to significant variations in crime rates to facilitate meaningful comparisons between perceptions of crime and reported crime.

The Karachi Range was selected on the basis that they were represented by a cross-section of both high and low crime areas within a residential context. Ten suburbs within these two police divisions were selected as the main study areas.

Crime is measured in many different ways. A review of the literature and government statistical reports regarding the measurement of crime was conducted. This review was intended to summarize and explain, in a non-technical manner, the various approaches for measuring crime. Moreover, an analysis was undertaken to assess whether there have been changes in crime over time and whether the public's fear of crime is related to crime statistics.

There are two general methods used in the reporting of crime. The first, often referred to as official reports, is based upon crimes reported to the police. These are the statistics released by the Central Police Office (CPO) and an NGO-Citizens-Police Liaison Committee (CPLC). Examining officially reported crime, we find that the crime rate (the number of crimes per 100,000 population) has been falling steadily for the past six years. However, because the statistics are based upon crimes reported to the police, there is concern that this measure underestimates the extent of crime. For example, some crimes go unreported because victims feel that there is nothing to be gained (e.g., minor thefts) or they choose to keep the act hidden (e.g., sexual assault from a spouse).

Reported crime data, in the form of Offences Against the Person and Offences Against Property for all residential dwellings and units in the Towns of Karachi was extracted from the Citizens-Police Liaison Committee (CPLC) and Central Police Office (Sindh) database.

Results

A suitable statistics like Regression modeling or Predictive modeling shall be used to furnish the research with the statistical treatment of results/findings.

Discussion

After conducting the study.