Diverging Employment Trajectories: Occupational Differences in Unemployment Risk and Fear of Crime

This chapter studies the links between occupational unemployment risk and fear of crime. The literature on fear of crime shows that individual-level and contextual-level factors shape individuals’ fears. Some examine how unemployment influences fear of crime, but few to date focus on unemployment risk from one's occupation. Unemployment risk may influence fear of crime in at least two ways. First, individuals may respond to their higher unemployment risk by living in cheaper neighbourhoods which are perceived as unsafe. Second, higher unemployment risk may create feelings of insecuritiy that manifest as fear of crime. To study this link in Western Europe, this chapter used cross-national individual-level data from the European Social Survey (Rounds 1–9) and occupational data from Eurostat. It finds that individuals whose occupations have higher than national unemployment risk are significantly more likely to fear crime. If rising inequality leads to some occupations doing worse than others, fear of crime may become occupationally stratified. When these fears are harnessed by politicians competing for tougher law and order policies, it may explain current developments in West European politics, particularly the rise of right-wing populism. Future studies can build on this chapter to probe the mechanism linking unemployment risk and fear of crime.