Social capital and fear of crime in adolescence: A multilevel study

Hierarchical linear modeling was used toexamine the relationships between social capital (at theindividual, the neighborhood, and the regional levels) andadolescents’ fear of crime, while controlling for the mainindividual (sociodemographics, television viewing, andbullying victimization), neighborhood (neighborhood sizeand aggregated victimization), and regional (crime rateand level of urbanization) variables. Data were analyzedusing a three-level model based on 22,639 15.7-year-old(SD = 0.67) students nested within 1081 neighborhoodsand 19 Italian regions. The findings revealed thatindividual and contextual measures of social capital,modeled at the individual, neighborhood, and regionallevels simultaneously, showed negative associations withadolescents’ fear of crime. Males and participants withhigher family affluence were less likely to feel fear ofcrime, whereas victimization, both at the individual andneighborhood levels, had a positive association with fearof crime. Strengths, limitations, and potential applicationsof the study are discussed.