Keywords
insecurity
victimization
social representations
deliquency
How to Cite
Abstract
This work analyses the dynamics of social representations with a sample of university students in Spain (n = 237) and Venezuela (n = 305) along with the centrality of subjective insecurity on their organizational principles. Following the methodology proposed by Doise, Clèmence, and Lorenzi-Cioldi (1993), the shared and differential meanings of delinquency are studied, as well as their anchoring in the subjective perception of risk, victimization experience and belonging to two national realities. Results show that Basque students represent delinquency stereotypically, associating some crime types to certain groups and criminogenic contexts related to young people, drugs, and immigration. Nevertheless Venezuelan students emphasise the causes of crime and its destructive consequences for social life, and a state of fear and insecurity due to a closer experience of crime. The subjective perception of risk and the victimization experiences are associated with these representations, allowing us to propose new priorities and challenges in the methods used for studying and facing fear and subjective insecurity.
Abdullah, A., Hedayati Marzbali, M., Maghsoodi Tilaki, M. J., & Bahauddin, A. (2015). Territorial features, disorder and fear of crime in residential neighbourhoods in Malaysia: Testing for multigroup invariance. Global Crime, 16(3), 197-218. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/17440572.2015.1019611
Arnoso, M., Arnoso, A., & Pérez-Sales, P. (2012). Representaciones sociales del pasado: la dictadura militar argentina en la memoria colectiva. Revista de Psicología Social, 27(3), 259-272. http://dx.doi.org/10.1174/021347412802845540
Ávila, M. E., Martínez-Ferrer, B., Vera, J. A., Bahena, A., & Musitu, G. (2015). Victimización, miedo al delito y cambios en las rutinas cotidianas en un contexto de alta criminalidad, en función del género. Revista Española de Investigación Criminológica, 13, 1-22. Recuperado de https://dialnet.unirioja.es/servlet/articulo?codigo=5395416
Baker, M., Nienstedt, B., Everett, R., & McCleary, R. (1983). The impact of crime wave: Perceptions, fear and confidence in the police. Law & Society Review,17(2), 319-336. http://dx.doi.org/ 10.2307/3053350
Brunton-Smith, I., Jackson, J., & Sutherland, A. (2014). Bridging structure and perception: On the neighbourhood ecology of beliefs and worries about violent crime. British Journal of Criminology, 54(4), 503-526. http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/bjc/azu020
Cárdenas, M., & Blanco, A. (2004). Las representaciones sociales del movimiento antiglobalización. Revista de Psicología Política, 28, 27-54. Recuperado de https://www.uv.es/garzon/psicologia%20politica/N28-2.pdf
Carro, D., Valera, S., & Vidal, T. (2010). Perceived insecurity in the public space: Personal, social and environmental variables. Quality and Quantity, 44(2), 303-314. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s11135-008-9200-0
Di Giacomo, J. P. (1980). Intergroup alliances and rejections within a protest movement (Analysis of the social representations). European Journal of Social Psychology, 10, 329-344. http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/ejsp.2420100402
Doise, W., Clèmence, A., & Lorenzi-Cioldi, F. (1993). The quantitative analysis of social representations. Londres: Harvester Wheatsheaf.
Doise, W., & Papastamou, S. (1987). Représentation sociales des causes de la delinquance: croyances generales et cas concrets. Deviance et Societé, 11(2), 153-162. http://dx.doi.org/10.3917/ds.282.0179
Doise, W., Spini, D., & Clèmence, A. (1999). Human rights studied as social representations in a cross-national context. European Journal of Social Psychology, 29, 1-29. http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/(SICI)1099-0992(199902)29:1<1::AID-EJSP909>3.0.CO;2-#
Doran, B. J., & Lees, B. G. (2005). Investigating the spatiotemporal links between disorder, crime, and the fear of crime. Professional Geographer, 57, 1-12. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.0033-0124.2005.00454.x
Dowler, K. (2003). Media consumption and public attitudes toward crime and justice: The relationship between fear of crime, punitive attitudes, and perceived police effectiveness. Journal of Criminal Justice and Popular Culture, 10(2), 109-126. Recuperado de https://www.albany.edu/scj/jcjpc/vol10is2/dowler.html
Dubois, N. (2003). A sociocognitive approach to social norms. Londres: Routledge.
Eitle, D., & Taylor, J. (2008). Are Hispanics the new 'threat'? Minority group threat and fear of crime in Miami-Dade County. Social Science Research, 37, 1102-1115. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ssresearch.2008.05.005
Elcheroth, G., Doise, W., & Reicher, S. (2011). On the knowledge of politics and the politics of knowledge: How a social representations approach helps us rethink the subject of political psychology. Political Psychology, 32(5), 729-758. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9221.2011.00834.x
Farrall, S., Jackson, J., & Gray, E. (2008). La trascendencia cultural y social del miedo a la delincuencia. En A. Serrano Maíllo & J. L. Guzmán Dálbora (Eds.), Procesos de infracción de normas y de reacción a la infracción de normas: dos tradiciones Criminológicas (pp. 233-276). Madrid: Dykinson.
Farrall, S., Jackson, J., & Gray, E. (2009). Social order and the fear of crime in contemporary times. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Farrall, S., & Lee, M. (Eds.). (2009). Fear of crime: Critical voices in an age of anxiety. Abingdon, UK: Routledge-Cavendish.
Fattah, E. A. (1993). Research on fear of crime: Some common conceptual and measurement problems. En W. Bilsky, C. Pfeiffer & P. Wetzels (Eds.), Fear of crime and criminal victimization (pp. 45-70). Sttutgart: Enke.
Ferguson, K. N., & Mindel, C. H. (2007). Modeling fear of crime in Dallas neighborhoods: A test of social capital theory. Crime & Delinquency, 53, 322-349. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0011128705285039
Fernández-Ramírez, B. (2008). Seis hipótesis de trabajo para entender la delincuencia y el miedo al delito. Revista Española de Investigación Criminológica, 6, 1-25. Recuperado de www.criminologia.net/pdf/reic/ano6-2008/a62008art6.pdf
Ferraro, K. F. (1995). Fear of crime: Interpreting victimization risk. Albany, NY: SUNY Press.
Foster, S., Knuiman, M., Wood, L., & Giles-Corti, B. (2013). Suburban neighbourhood design: Associations with fear of crime versus perceived crime risk. Journal of Environmental Psychology, 36, 112-117. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jenvp.2013.07.015
Furnham, A., & Henderson, M. (1983). Lay theories of delinquency. European Journal of Social Psychology, 13, 107-120. http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/ejsp.2420130202
Gaffié, B. (2006). Effect of political positioning on explanations of delinquency: An experimental study of social differentiation and representation. Political Psychology, 27(3), 403-421. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9221.2006.00507.x
Gray, E., Jackson, J., & Farrall, S. (2008). Reassessing the fear of crime. European Journal of Criminology, 5, 363-380. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/1477370808090834
Harré, R. (2012). Positioning theory: Moral dimensions of social-cultural psychology. En J. Valsiner (Ed.), The Oxford handbook of culture and psychology (pp. 191-206). Nueva York: Oxford University Press. http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780195396430.013.0010
Hartnagel, T. F., & Templeton, L. J. (2012). Emotions about crime and attitudes to punishment. Punishment & Society, 14(4), 452-474. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/1462474512452519
Hedayati Marzbali, M., Abdullah, A., & Maghsoodi Tilaki, M. J. (2016). The effectiveness of interventions in the built environment for improving health by addressing fear of crime. International Journal of Law, Crime and Justice, 45, 120-140. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ijlcj.2015.12.002
Hirtenlehner, H., & Farrall, S. (2013). Anxieties about modernization, concerns about community, and fear of crime: Testing two related models. International Criminal Justice Review, 23, 5-24. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/1057567712475307
Jasso, C. (2013). Percepción de inseguridad en México. Revista Mexicana de Opinión Pública, 15, 12-29. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/S1870-7300(13)72319-6
Lebart, L., & Salem, A. (1994). Statistique textuelle. París: Dunod.
Liebnitzky, J., & Montero, M. (2013). Miedo al crimen en estudiantes de la ciudad de Caracas. Psicologia & Sociedade, 25(1), 152-162. http://dx.doi.org/10.1590/S0102-71822013000100017
Lorenc, T., Clayton, S., Neary, D., Whitehead, M., Petticrew, M., Thomson, H., … Renton, A. (2012). Crime, fear of crime, environment, and mental health and wellbeing: Mapping review of theories and causal pathways. Health and Place, 18(4), 757-765. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.healthplace.2012.04.001
Lorenc, T., Petticrew, M., Whitehead, M., Neary, D., Clayton, S., Wright, K., … Renton, A. (2013). Environmental interventions to reduce fear of crime: Systematic review of effectiveness. Systematic Reviews, 2, 30. http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/2046-4053-2-30
Molina-Jácome, I. (2014). Miedo al crimen y medios de comunicación: una revisión de la literatura. Revista Criminalidad, 56(3), 9-23. Recuperado de http://www.scielo.org.co/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S1794-31082014000300002
Moscovici, S. (1976). Social influence and social change. Londres: Academic.
Robles, A. L. (2014). Miedo en las calles: principal emoción de la inseguridad pública delictiva. Un estudio criminológico y de género. Revista del Instituto de Ciencias Jurídicas de Puebla, 8(34), 81-100. Recuperado de http://www.revistaius.com/index.php/ius/article/view/123/514
Rodríguez, J. A., & Quinde, M. (2016). Miedo al delito y medios de comunicación tradicionales. Espacio Abierto: Cuaderno Venezolazo de Sociología, 25(2), 145-166. Recuperado de https://www.researchgate.net/publication/305386061_Miedo_al_
delito_y_medios_de_comunicacion_tradicionales
Ruiz, J. I. (2007). Procesos sociales relacionados con el miedo al crimen, la satisfacción con la policía y la victimizacion: el caso de la cultura ciudadana. International E-journal of Criminal Sciences, 1, 1-29. Recuperado de https://dialnet.unirioja.es/servlet/articulo?codigo=4876031
San-Juan, C., Vozmediano, L., & Vergara, A. (2012). Self-protective behaviours against crime in urban settings: An empirical approach to vulnerability and victimization models. European Journal of Criminology, 9(6), 652-667. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/1477370812454369
Scherman, A., & Etchegaray, N. (2012). Consumo de noticias y temor al delito en Chile. Estudios sobre el Mensaje Periodístico, 19(1), 563-575. http://dx.doi.org/10.5209/rev_ESMP.2013.v19.n1.42539
Soares, R. R., & Naritomi, J. L. (2010). Understanding high crime rates in Latin America: The role of social and policy factors. En R. Di Tella, S. Edwards & E. Schargrodsky (Eds.), The economics of crime: Lessons for and from Latin America (pp. 19-55). Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Soomeren, P., Schillings, M., Smits, N., Woldendorp, T., Jongejan, A., Davey, C. … Marselle, M. (2008). Reducing the fear factor. Guidance for addressing fear of crime and insecurity within urban development. Londres: Design Against Crime Solution Centre, University of Salford. Recuperado de http://www.securefit.org/downloads/files/Reducing%20the%20Fear%20Factor.pdf
Soto, S. (2005). La influencia de los medios en la percepción social de la delincuencia. Revista Electrónica de Ciencia Penal y Criminología, 7, 1-46. Recuperado de http://criminet.ugr.es/recpc/07/recpc07-09.pdf
United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime. (2017). Homicide statistics. Recuperado de https://www.unodc.org/documents/gsh/pdfs/GLOBAL_HOMICIDE_Report_ExSum_spanish.pdf
Valera, S., & Guàrdia, J. (2014). Perceived insecurity and fear of crime in a city with low-crime rates. Journal of Environmental Psychology, 38, 195-205. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jenvp.2014.02.002
Van Beek, G. (2004). Feeling (un)safe and (in)secure in the risk society. Leuven, BE: Katholieke Universiteit Leuven. Recuperado de http://statbel.fgov.be/studies/ac084_en.pdf
Vozmediano, L., & San-Juan, C. (2006). Empleo de sistemas de información geográfica en el estudio del miedo al delito. Revista Española de Investigación Criminológica, 2, 1-11.
Vozmediano, L., San-Juan, C., Vergara, A. I., & Alonso-Alberca, N. (2017). “Watch out, sweetie”: The impact of gender and offence type on parents’ altruistic fear of crime. Sex Roles, 77(9-10), 676-686. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s11199-017-0758-7
Vozmediano, L., San-Juan, C., & Vergara, A. (2008). Problemas de medición de miedo al delito: algunas respuestas teóricas y técnicas. Revista electrónica de Ciencia Penal y Criminología, 10, 1-15. Recuperado de http://criminet.ugr.es/recpc/10/recpc10-07.pdf
Wagner, W., Elejabarrieta, F. &Valencia, J. F. (1994). Estabilidad de las representaciones sociales de la guerra y la paz en dos países. Revista de Psicología Social y Personalidad, 10(2), 123-143.
Williams, S. A. (2015). Perceptions of the police and fear of crime: The role of neighborhood social capital (Tesis de maestría inédita). Graduate College of Bowling Green State University, Ohio. Recuperado de https://etd.ohiolink.edu/!etd.send_file?accession=bgsu1440351447&disposition=inline
This journal is registered under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Public License. Thus, this work may be reproduced, distributed, and publicly shared in digital format, as long as the names of the authors and Pontificia Universidad Javeriana are acknowledged. Others are allowed to quote, adapt, transform, auto-archive, republish, and create based on this material, for any purpose (even commercial ones), provided the authorship is duly acknowledged, a link to the original work is provided, and it is specified if changes have been made. Pontificia Universidad Javeriana does not hold the rights of published works and the authors are solely responsible for the contents of their works; they keep the moral, intellectual, privacy, and publicity rights. Approving the intervention of the work (review, copy-editing, translation, layout) and the following outreach, are granted through an use license and not through an assignment of rights. This means the journal and Pontificia Universidad Javeriana cannot be held responsible for any ethical malpractice by the authors. As a consequence of the protection granted by the use license, the journal is not required to publish recantations or modify information already published, unless the errata stems from the editorial management process. Publishing contents in this journal does not generate royalties for contributors.