Acculturation and fear of crime among Hispanics

Abstract

Fear of crime has attracted significant attention in academic research. One area that has largely been overlooked concerns fear of crime correlates among Hispanics, the largest ethnic minority group in the United States. Their unique cultural background as immigrants make them different from Non-Hispanic Whites and African Americans, and they all go through the acculturation process to some degree. However, the influence of acculturation has seldom been incorporated into the analysis. The current study attempts to use the acculturation thesis to examine two different types of fear among Hispanic residents in Houston, Texas. The findings suggest that acculturation is a significant predictor of crime-specific fear at home, but not of fear of crime in the neighborhood.

Keywords:

• Acculturation
• Hispanics
• crime-specific fear at home
• fear of crime in the neighborhood

Endnotes

Notes

1. Immigrant research categorizes three generations of immigrants: first generation immigrants refer to those who were born in the United States; second generation immigrations are defined as those who were born in the United States, but have one or both parents born outside the United States; third generation immigrants are those who were born in the United States and have both parents born in the United States (Bui & Thongniramol, 2005).

2. The three models discussed in the literature review are the generic conceptual frameworks. Some variables have been included in different models (Britto, 2013; Gibson et al., 2002).

3. There are different measures of fear developed over the course of 40 years, such as fear of violent crime (Warr & Stafford, 1983; Adu-Mireku, 2002) and specific fear of burglary (Ferraro, 1996). Each has its merits and shortcomings (for a review, please see Ferraro & LaGrange, 1987). In this study, the focus of fear is geographically specific. Therefore, we decided to utilize the two measures of personal fear in one's neighborhood as an important measure of geographic location. Admittedly, the two measures were developed about 40 years ago, and some scholars have noted that the two measures are too simplistic (Garofalo, 1979). At the same time, these measures have been continuously used in the research on fear of crime and fit our research purpose well (McGarrell et al., 1997; Gibson et al., 2002).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Fei Luo

Fei Luo is an assistant professor in the Department of Social Sciences at Texas A&M International University. Her research interests include fear of crime, immigrants, application of quantitative methods, and policing.

Jihong Solomon Zhao

Jihong Solomon Zhao is a professor in the College of Criminal Justice at Sam Houston State University. He earned his PhD in political science in 1994 from Washington State University. His research interests include police management, policy evaluation, and research methods. He has authored, coauthored, and edited three books on community policing and contemporary policing issues. He is the author of more than 70 peer-reviewed journal articles. His recent work has appeared in Justice Quarterly, Criminology & Public Policy, Journal of Criminal Justice, Crime & Delinquency, and Police Quarterly.