Near Misses in Research on Crime and Fear of Crime
Réka Solymosi
University of Manchester
10/05/2022
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My research
- Fear of crime (place-based approach)
- New (?) / alternative (?) forms of data
- Under-reported crimes
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App for reporting fear of crime
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Overall: learned about fear of crime as a context specific, place based experience.
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Near Misses
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Near Misses
- What is a near miss?
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Near Misses
What is a near miss?
Why is this interesting?
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The safety pyramid has a long history dating back to 1931 and H.W. Heinrich with his pioneering book Industrial Accident Prevention: A Scientific Approach
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- Variations and discussions about the ratios
- All of these studies used large groups and expressed the results in triangles or pyramids
| Level | Heinrich 1931 | Bird & Germain 1969 | Fletcher 1972 | Tye 1975 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Fatal injury | 1 | |||
| Major injury | 1 | 1 | 1 | |
| Minor injury | 29 | 10 | 19 | 3 |
| First aid only | 50 | |||
| Property damage | 30 | 80 | ||
| Noninjury | 300 | 600 | 175 | 400 |
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General idea: paying attention to and understanding the near misses can possibly lead to understanding and preventing serious incidents.
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Why is this important?
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Reason 1:
Even if near misses do not "predict" more serious incidents, they have consequences in themselves
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Near misses and fear in cycling
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Fear of crime also linked with 'near miss'
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Example: FOCApp
I was on my way into university in the morning, and I was coming into Euston station and there was someone who looked like they were trying to remove a bike from the railings that had been locked in, and they didn’t look like the owners of the bike. And then I suspected they were trying to steal the bike, so I reported my fear of crime because it was a specific incident of me seeing what I thought was criminal activity.
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Example: CinCity
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Fear of crime affects:
- equal access to public space
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Fear of crime affects:
equal access to public space
sustainable travel
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Fear of crime affects:
equal access to public space
sustainable travel
individual and community wellbeing
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Reason 2:
If near misses predict serious incidents, we can study spatial and temporal patterns of incidents on which we otherwise have sparse data
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Reason 3:
By becoming interested in the near misses, we "lower the barrier" to reporting something, providing insight into crimes which are traditionally underreported
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4 reports labelled as "Hate Crime" (2 x Fairly and 2 x Very worried)
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Conclusions:
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Conclusions:
- Place/ context specific fear of crime events can be thought of as "near misses"
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Conclusions:
- Place/ context specific fear of crime events can be thought of as "near misses"
- In any case, may be important in themselves as fear of crime events with real consequences
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Conclusions:
- Place/ context specific fear of crime events can be thought of as "near misses"
- In any case, may be important in themselves as fear of crime events with real consequences
- But if near miss may help identify areas of concern/ interest
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Conclusions:
- Place/ context specific fear of crime events can be thought of as "near misses"
- In any case, may be important in themselves as fear of crime events with real consequences
- But if near miss may help identify areas of concern/ interest
- And may help complement data sources on underreported incidents
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Relevant Papers
- Mapping fear of crime as a context-dependent everyday experience that varies in space and time
- Towards a Place-based Measure of Fear of Crime: A Systematic Review of App-based and Crowdsourcing Approaches
- Understanding Knife Crime and Trust in Police with Young People in East London
- Thesis
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