The influence of threat of victimization on attitudes towards justice and the Role of the Big Five personality traits

In past research, many contradicting findings have been made regarding the concept of fear of crime. Therefore, a reconceptualization is introduced, specifically the threat of victimization. This concept is comprised of fear of crime (emotional reaction), perceived risk (cognitive reaction) and constrained behaviours (behavioural reaction) which are responses to the threat of victimization. The current research investigates whether the found relationships between fear of crime, personality and attitudes towards justice also exist when looking at the threat of victimization. It was hypothesized that people who are more conscientious and neurotic experience a higher threat of victimization and extroverted, agreeable and open people perceive a smaller threat of victimization. Next to that, it was hypothesized that people who perceive a higher threat of victimization hold more retributive justice attitudes and in contrast, the people who perceive a smaller threat of victimization hold more restorative justice attitudes. In the study, only some of the hypothesis could be supported. The threat of victimization seems to be an umbrella construct for fear of crime, perceived risk and constrained behaviours and therefore the proposed model was supported. Additionally, neuroticism was found to have a positive significant influence on the threat of victimization which partly supported the hypothesis. The current research is the next step to investigate fear of crime and especially the new conceptualization threat of victimization. Future research should aim to further validate the concept and examine already found relationships between fear of crime and other variables.