Abstract
Giddens explores, in Modernity and Self-Identity, our preoccupation with risks in modern social life and the disparity between perceived risks and actual prevalence of life-threatening dangers [Giddens, A.: 1991, Modern and Self-Identity. Self and Society in Late Modern Age (Polity Press, Cambridge), p. 115]. Modern technologies have made global information accessible around the world; real time news communiqués about unfolding situations are displayed directly into the home environment through television and the internet. Global issues and local events intermix, blurring worldwide issues and threats with local realities. This research explored the everyday life of young people in two Australian rural communities, their community affiliation, sense of belonging and feeling safe in the local rural community. The research was exploratory in nature and based on a survey of 751 young people aged between 14 and 21 years, all being students at local secondary high schools. Feeling safe was of concern for both female and male young people: females indicated a higher tolerance towards strangers and cultural diversity, but at the same time, they felt less safe in the local community. These findings are discussed in relation to a 1989–1990 study of 13- to 21-year-old urban Australian and Swedish young people. The study explored young people’s experiences of scary events in mass media, in their home environment and among themselves. The findings signify the need for a holistic approach to identify social indicators to describe the grounds for young people feeling unsafe and the need to take into consideration local community circumstances, the global milieu and conflicts as portrayed in news, documentary and entertainment mass media.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Altheide D.L. (2004) Consuming terrorism, Symbolic Interaction 27 (3): 289–308
Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS): 2004, Recorded Crime – Victims, Australia, Cat, 4510.0 Commonwealth of Australia, Canberra
Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS): 2001, Census 2001 Commonwealth of Australia, Canberra
Bean, C.: 2005, Young People’s Voting Pattern. Paper prepared for Youth Electoral Study Workshop, Old Parliament House, Canberra, June 2005 (draft report), Queensland University of Technology
Boyle, M.P., M. Schmierbach, C.L. Armstrong, D.M. McLeod, D.V. Shah and P. Zhongdang: 2004, ‘Information seeking and emotional reactions to the September 11 terrorist attack’, Journalism and Mass Communication Quarterly, Spring 81(1), pp. 155–167
Coppola D.P.: 2005, Gripped by fear: Public risk (mis)perception and the Washington, DC sniper. Disaster Prevention Management 14(1): 32–54
Dahlgren P.: 1988, What’s the meaning of this? Viewers’ plural sense-making of television news. Media Culture, and Society 10: 285–310
DeFleur M., Cronin M.: 1991, Completeness and accuracy of recall in the diffusion of the news from newspaper vs. a television source. Sociological Inquiry 61: 148–166
Eschholz S.: 1997, The media and fear of crime: A survey of the research University of Florida Journal of law and Public Policy 9: 37–59
Fabiansson, C.: 1992, Cultural Violence Reflected in Social Behaviour. A Study of Everyday Life of Young People in Australia and Sweden (University of New South Wales), pp. 1–290 (unpublished PhD thesis)
Fabiansson, C., L. Healey: 2004, Young People’s Community Affiliation (Final Report, University of Western Sydney)
Farrell A.D., Bruce S.E. 1997, Impact of exposure to community violence on violent behavior and emotional distress among urban adolescents. Journal of Clinical Child Psychology 26: 2–14
Fisher, B.S and J.J. Sloan: 2003, `Unraveling the fear of victimization among college women: Is␣the “shadow of sexual assault hypothesis” supported?', Justice Quarterly 20(3), pp. 633–659
Fisher C.B., Wallace S.A., Fenton R.E. 2000, Discrimination distress during adolescence. Journal of Youth and Adolescence 29(6): 679–695
Giddens A. 1991, Modernity and Self-Identity. Self and Society in Late Modern Age, Polity Press, Cambridge
Goodey J. 1997, Boys don’t cry: Masculinities, fear of crime and fearlessness British Journal of Criminology 37(1): 401–418
Gunter B. 1987, Television and the Fear of Crime. John Libbey, London
Hale, C.: 1996, `Fear of crime: A review of the literature', International Review of Victimology 4, pp. 79–150
Heath L. 1984, Impact of newspaper crime reports on fear of crime. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 47: 263–276
Jackson S., Scott S. 1999, Risk anxiety and the social construction of childhood. In: Lupton D. (ed), Risk and Sociocultural Theory: New Directions and Perspectives, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge
Kahn R., Kellner D. 2004, New media and internet activism: From the “Battle of Seattle” to blogging. New Media & Society 6(1): 87–95
Kellner D. 2003, From 9/11 to Terror War: The Dangers of the Bush Legacy, Rowman and Littlefield, Lanham, MD
Kubey R.W., Peluso T. 1990, Emotional response as a cause of interpersonal news diffusion: The case of the space shuttle tragedy. Journal of Broadcasting & Electronic Media 34(1): 69–76
Liska A.E., Baccaglini W. 1990, Feeling safe by comparison: Crime in the newspapers. Social Problems 37: 360–374
Liska A.E., Sanchirico A., Reed M.D. 1988, Fear of crime and constrained behaviour specifying and estimating a reciprocal effects model. Social Forces 66(3): 827–837
Markowitz F.E., Bellair P.E., Liska A.E., Liu J.H. 2001, Extending social disorganization theory: Modeling the relationships between cohesion, disorder, and fear. Criminology 39(2): 293–320
Moskowitz H., Laraque D., Doucette J.T., Shelov E. 2005, Relationships of US youth homicide victims and their offenders, 1976–1999. Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine 159(4): 356–361
Office of Economic and Statistical Research (OESR): 2002, Queensland Government, Catalogue No. 2001.0
Pain R. 2003, Youth, age and the representation of fear. Capital & Class 80: 151–171
Putnam R. 2000, Bowling Alone: The Collapse and Revival of American Community, Simon & Schuster, New York
Schmid A.P., Jongman A.J.: 1988, Political Terrorism: A New Guide to Actors, Authors, Concepts, Data Bases, Theories and Literature, Transaction Books, New Brunswick, NJ, pp. 1–30
Surette R. 1998, Media, Crime, and Criminal Justice, Wadsworth Belmont, CA
Sirgy M.J., Cornwell T. 2002, How neighborhood features affect quality of life. Social Indicators Research 59(1): 79–114
Walma van der Molen J.H. 2004, Violence and suffering in television news: Toward a broader conception of harmful television content for children Pediatrics 113(6): 1771–1775
Weist M.D., Cooley-Quille M. 2001, Advancing efforts to address youth violence involvement. Journal of Clinical Child Psychology 30(2): 147–151
Weitzer R., Kubrin C.E. 2004, Breaking news: How local TV news and real-world conditions affect fear of crime. Justice Quarterly 21(3): 497–520
Wilson C.E., Howard D.M. 1978, Public perception of media accuracy. Journalism Quarterly 55: 73–76
White M., Kasl S.V., Zahner G.E.P., Will J.C. 1987, Perceived crime in the neighbourhood and mental health of women and children. Environment and Behaviour 19(5): 588–613
Youngstrom E., Weist M.D., Albus K.E. 2003, Exploring violence exposure, stress, protective factors and behavioral problems among inner-city youths. American Journal of Community Psychology 32(1/2): 115–129
Zulaika J., Douglass W.A. 1996. Terror and Taboo: The Follies, Fables, and Faces of Terrorism, Routledge, New York
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Fabiansson, C. Young People’s Perception Of Being Safe – Globally & Locally. Soc Indic Res 80, 31–49 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11205-006-9020-3
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11205-006-9020-3