“Did you watch today’s news?” - The relationship between crime news exposure and fear of crime and the moderating role of psychological capital

Research about crime news exposure has often debated its association with fear of crime and the role of demographics in this regard. Recommendations were made to find a moderator that can help to explain this relationship and psychological capital is a promising construct that has not been studied in this context yet. Hence, this study aims to investigate the association between crime news exposure and fear of crime, the role of demographic variables and the role of psychological capital herein. A correlational online survey was conducted and to analyse the data for associations, Spearman’s Rho correlations were used whereas the moderation was investigated using regression analysis. The results revealed that crime news exposure was associated with fear of crime, yet psychological capital did not have a significant influence on this relationship and it was not associated with fear of crime. Practice should spread awareness about the association between crime news exposure and fear of crime and the inflated image of crime that people may develop as a result of the negativity bias in the news. Future research should continue searching for other psychological variables that may help to better explain the relationship between crime news exposure and fear of crime.