Social Control

Abstract

Responses to questions about social control show considerable difference between women and men and young and old. Women at every age show far higher rates of fear about walking alone than men. Men are more likely to own weapons, and to have been hit, threatened, and mugged. The great majority of both sexes feel safe at home at night, even though between five and ten percent report an illegal entry to their homes in the past year. Younger men and women are more likely than old to have been subjected to some form of violence, yet the young express fear of crime less frequently than the old.