Sexual Minority Vulnerability and Fear of Victimization

ABSTRACT

After emerging as an issue of concern nationally in the last half-century, fear of crime has remained a prominent issue among Americans. Researchers have since begun to explore some of the more complex factors driving fear of crime, both individually and structurally. “Shadow hypotheses” research explores how other, more specific fears may overshadow generalized fear. One area where research is only beginning to address is the fear of crime among sexual minorities. This study aims to examine how fear of crime among sexual minorities is distinguished from fear experienced by heterosexuals. We utilize a series of nested, ordinary least squares regression models to assess the validity of “shadow hypotheses” among sexual minorities and heterosexuals separately. While findings do not lend strong support to the shadow effect of fear for sexual minorities, the research reveals important nuances of fear for both groups. Additionally, it highlights how critical this type of research is to further our understanding of how people experience fear. The research is timely and relevant researchers have recently established that sexual minorities are disproportionately targeted in bullying and hate assaults.

KEYWORDS:

• Sexual minorities
• shadow of fear
• fear of crime

Acknowledgments

The authors wish to thank James Gorton, Sydney Lancaster, Nicholas McCullers, Samantha Riggs, Emily Routh, Kathryn Tapp, Gabrielle Vasquez, and Tamra Voll for their assistance with data collection. We also wish to thank Kaylie Kimsey for her assistance with revision. This research was supported in part by the university’s Faculty Research Grant Program.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1. Despite the complexity of defining the term “sexual minority” discussed in the literature (see Moradi et al. (2009) for a succinct review), we define and operationalize the term to indicate any sexuality other than heterosexual.

2. For brevity in the literature review, we refer to the sample in each study according to this scheme: LGBTQ (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer). For example, if a study only sampled lesbian and gay populations, we refer to that sample as LG.

3. The semi-public administration of the survey may have impacted the data validity; those who had experienced victimization may not have felt comfortable fully disclosing their experiences in that setting, especially if they felt at risk for a trigger event.

4. We changed the order of entering the fear independent variables in the combined model to see if the results changed, and noted no substantive changes in significance.

5. Using z-tests is critical to determine if any differences in the results are substantive and significantly different across group, an approach that furthers our ability to test Hypothesis 3.

6. According to the U.S. Department of Education, the national percentage of college students who received Pell grant in 2018 was about 34%, the university reported in 2018 that only about 6% of financial aid received by students was from a Pell grant.