30
Aug
2017
By Calvin at 09:01 GMT, 8 years ago
A report by The Children’s Society published today has identified that the fear of crime is one of the main stand out concerns of children today. According to the report’s findings 1 in 3 teenage girls are afraid of being followed by a stranger and 1 in 4 boys are worried they will be assaulted, which affects 2.2 million children in the UK.
Fear of crime amongst various groups, such as children and the elderly are often out of kilter with the actual chances of becoming a victim of crime, the levels of which have remained similar over the past twenty years in spite of the overall volume of crime falling significantly.
I have no doubt that this mismatch between fear and actual victimisation has something to do with our use of and exposure to the media and the images of crime that are looked at on platforms such as Twitter and Facebook. That being said, newspapers and news channels have always shown us images of people who have been viciously attacked with a picture of a beaten up elderly woman shown on our news channels just last week.
The Children’s Society report makes a number of recommendations to local and national government for action, but I do think it is essential for parents to talk about these matters with their children, so that they understand their fears, if they have them, and to work out ways to help them feel more confident. Simple advice about how to stay safe when out and about is widely available on the internet, including this website, and an appreciation about how much crime has fallen will also help to allay their fears.
I do appreciate that in some cases a child’s fear of crime is justifiable, which is where our police and children’s services must step in.
The Children’s Society is a national charity that runs local services and campaigns to change the law to help this country’s most vulnerable children and young people.
Good Childhood Report 2017 https://www.childrenssociety.org.uk/sites/default/files/gcr2o17-summary-embargo.pdf
Practising Safe Steps on this website, although written for students, may be useful for young teenagers as will other pages in the Personal Security section
https://thecrimepreventionwebsite.com/student-security/664/practising-safe-steps/
The Children’s Society https://www.childrenssociety.org.uk/
