"THE GENDERED NATURE OF FEAR" : FEAR OF VIOLENT CRIME AMONG YOUNG WOMEN: A SYSTEMATIC LITERATURE REVIEW

Sammanfattning

This systematic review examines fear of violent crime among young women within a chosen geographical scope, focusing on how gender, age, race, ethnicity, and victimization experiences shape perceptions of fear. The review synthesizes findings from 42 empirical studies conducted in North America, Europe, including the United Kingdom, Australia, and New Zealand. Fear of crime is treated as both an emotional and social issue, with particular attention to its psychosocial and behavioral consequences for well-being, mobility, and participation in public life. Across the literature, young women’s fear was strongly connected to perceived vulnerability, the threat of sexual violence, prior and vicarious victimization, and environmental conditions that increased feelings of insecurity. The findings show that fear is not only related to actual victimization risk, but also to everyday encounters, social norms, indirect experiences, and the anticipation of harm in public space. Race, ethnicity, and geographical context further shaped these experiences, as young women from ethnic minority backgrounds faced specific forms of insecurity linked to racialized experiences, harassment, and social exclusion. Young women often responded to fear through precautionary andavoidance behaviors, showing how fear becomes embedded in everyday life, while also placing responsibility for safety on women themselves. Overall, fear of violent crime emerges as a complex and gendered phenomenon shaped by intersecting forms of vulnerability, gendered experiences of threat, and unequal access to public space.