Fear of crime in the neighbourhood : a study of Wong Tai Sin

Abstract

This study explores the fear of crime in Wong Tai Sin over the years and in recent social unrests and the pandemic since 2019. Existing criminological literature on the fear of crime examined its impact on lower socio-economic status neighbourhoods in western societies and suggested vulnerabilities in terms of gender, age, race, and social-economic status. This study aims to fill the research gap by examining the crime perceptions and reactions in the extensive public housing neighbourhood in the local context of Hong Kong. This research conducted semi-structured interviews with six participants from three families who have lived in the Wong Tai Sin district for over twenty years. The Signal Crimes perspective proposed by Martin Innes is applied as the theoretical framework of analysis, exploring these residents' perceived risks and threats in the neighbourhood. The results suggested that the framework of Signal Crime perspective is highly applicable to understand the transforming perception of crime and safety in Wong Tai Sin. Also, intergenerational relations, familiarity, and control signals are relevant to resident’s varying fear of crime. Moreover, the functional fears are prevalently discovered in interviewees, the coping mechanisms have been effective in mitigating the negative effects of crime fears in Wong Tai Sin.