1. Assessing the role of criminality in neighbourhood safety feelings and self-reported health
- Author
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Ludovic G. P. M. van Amelsvoort, Polina Putrik, Hans van Oers, IJmert Kant, Maria Jansen, Anton E. Kunst, Nanne K. de Vries, Suhreta Mujakovic, Public and occupational health, APH - Global Health, APH - Health Behaviors & Chronic Diseases, RS: CAPHRI - R3 - Functioning, Participating and Rehabilitation, Health promotion, Promovendi PHPC, Epidemiologie, Health Services Research, RS: CAPHRI - R2 - Creating Value-Based Health Care, RS: CAPHRI - R6 - Promoting Health & Personalised Care, Tranzo, Scientific center for care and wellbeing, and Publieke Gezondheid
- Subjects
Male ,PERCEPTIONS ,Emotions ,Poison control ,DETERMINANTS ,FEAR ,Occupational safety and health ,0302 clinical medicine ,Residence Characteristics ,11. Sustainability ,80 and over ,Medicine ,030212 general & internal medicine ,Neighbourhood (mathematics) ,Netherlands ,Aged, 80 and over ,Crime/statistics & numerical data ,lcsh:Public aspects of medicine ,Residence Characteristics/statistics & numerical data ,Human factors and ergonomics ,Middle Aged ,16. Peace & justice ,3. Good health ,population characteristics ,Female ,Crime ,Safety ,MENTAL-HEALTH ,geographic locations ,Research Article ,RESIDENTS ,Adult ,medicine.medical_specialty ,Adolescent ,Criminality ,030209 endocrinology & metabolism ,03 medical and health sciences ,Diagnostic Self Evaluation ,Young Adult ,VIOLENT CRIME ,RATED HEALTH ,Environmental health ,Neighbourhood health ,Injury prevention ,mental disorders ,Humans ,Social determinants of health ,Perceived safety ,Cities ,Aged ,ENVIRONMENT ,business.industry ,Public health ,Socio-economic factors ,Public Health, Environmental and Occupational Health ,Fear of crime ,PATHWAYS ,lcsh:RA1-1270 ,social sciences ,Cross-Sectional Studies ,PHYSICAL-ACTIVITY ,Socioeconomic Factors ,business ,human activities - Abstract
BackgroundNeighbourhood safety has repeatedly been shown to be associated with the health and well-being of the residents. Criminality is often seen as one of the key factors affecting neighbourhood safety. However, the relationship between crime, fear of crime and feelings of safety remains underexplored.MethodsData on socio-demographic, health and safety perceptions was extracted from the Maastricht municipality survey (the Netherlands) (n = 9656 adults) and merged with data on official neighbourhood crime rates from the Police Registry. Pearson correlation coefficients and multilevel logistic regression models were computed to assess the association between aspects of objective and perceived criminality, individuals’ feelings of safety and health.ResultsThe correlation between the police recorded crime and residents’ perceptions of the neighbourhood crime rates was weak (0.14–0.38), with the exception of violent crime (0.59), which indicates that other factors contribute to the perceptions of safety. In turn, the perception of higher rates of violent crime and more nuisance (on the scale 0–10) but not other types of crime or nuisance was positively associated with feeling unsafe (OR 1.27 [1.22;1.32] and 1.39 [1.33;1.46], respectively). Lower general feelings of safety at both the individual and neighbourhood level were consistently associated with worse self-rated health. Among different indicators of safety, the general feelings of safety had the most pronounced association with health, while subjective or objective measures of crime showed limited to no direct relationship with health.ConclusionsPublic health policies targeting safety as a social determinant of health should consider prioritizing areas of violent crime and nuisance to improve general feelings of safety. Further research is needed to understand which factors aside from criminality are driving residents’ feelings of safety.
- Published
- 2019