Fear of Crime and its Related Social Factors Among the Elderly Citizens of Shiraz

The aim of this research is to investigate the situation of the fear of crime and its related social factors among the elderly in the city of Shiraz. This study is done within the framework of a quantitative methodology employing a survey method. The demographic population of the study are the elderly citizens of shiraz, 330 of them were selected through multilevel random sampling. The research tool was a questionnaire, indexes of which were validated through content and factor validity and its reliability was examined by the Cronbach alpha coefficient and test re-test reliability. In the theoretical part of fear of crime, different perspectives of social integration, social capital, demography theories, interpersonal communication and victimology were examined, and the conclusions of this research were determined using such frameworks. According to the findings of this research, the fear of crime among the elderly citizens of Shiraz was estimated to be average in the measurement scale of the research. The analysis of the content variables showed that respondents were significantly different in terms of the fear of crime based on different variables of age, gender, marriage, and level of education.  The fear of crime increased with an increase in age. A higher level of education reduced the fear of crime and so on. The inferential findings of this research study showed that social capital, as one of the independent variables of the research, affected fear of crime either directly or indirectly. However, its indirect effect was more (on skill) on dependence variable (fear of crime). Skill, as another independent variable of the research, has a direct and significant effect on fear of crime. The analysis of the research conclusions shows that fear of crime as a social phenomenon is prevalent among the elderly across the world both theoretically and experimentally which is affected by different social, mental, and environmental conditions and in order to reduce it among the elderly population, we need to get help from the inherent and individual capacities available in society including non-governmental organizations, media and more, in addition to understanding different aspects of it.