Criminal and economic threat, personal values, and psychological reactions to crime

In this study, we investigated the effects of experimentally manipulated criminal and economic threats on psychological reactions to crime. In addition, we examined if these effects were moderated by participants’ personal values. Two moderated regressions performed on the data from a quasi-experimental vignette study (N = 96) showed that criminal and economic threat influenced fear of crime and crime risk perception. These effects were significant only (for economic threat) or were stronger (for criminal threat) among people high in conservatism.