Fear of Crime and Victimization among Sexual Harassed Women: Evidence from Italy

This paper is about the relationship between criminal victimization and people’s perception of safety. The study refers simultaneously to three indicators of fear of crime: feeling unsafe alone in the streets after dark, fear of sexual violence (her or her relatives), fear of crime affecting own habits - against sexual victimization and characteristics of the place of residence, controlling demographic and socio-economic attributes of Italian women. The main results show that a) the prior victimization and crime exposure shape perceived future risk; b) fear of crime partly reflects worries about one's degraded context; c) married women seem more affected by the fear of crime, especially the fear of suffering directly or indirectly any sexual violence.