Parental Fear of Children's Victimization (A Case Study: District 6 of Kabul)

Parental fear of children's victimization has always been a major issue in human societies; however, few studies have attempted to examine it in Afghanistan. This survey was conducted in 2021 using simple multistage sampling. The findings suggested a very low, medium and high fear of children's victimization among 16.7, 14.1 and 68.9% of parents. A medium to high level of fear of children's victimization among parents was 83% which is quite high. Inferential findings suggested no significant relationship between parental fear of children's victimization and "ethnicity, home ownership status and subcultural diversity"; however, a significant relationship was found between other variables. The regression results showed that the "level of education, social disorganization and local connection" describe a percentage of parental fear of children's victimization.
 
1.Introduction
In the literature, there is a general consensus over the main consequences of fear which is the severe impairment of the quality of life. The consequences of fear at the individual level vary in terms of physical (heart rate, breath, weakening of the immune system and reduced physical activities), psychological (appearance of fear, isolation, anxiety and post-traumatic psychological injury) and behavioral (fear of crime forces a person to change their lifestyle to adapt to the extant situation) characteristics. The consequences of the fear of victimization at the neighborhood level causes less attendance in the neighborhood and less participation in neighborhood affairs, and in this way, it results in the lack of social control in the neighborhood. The lesser the people's attendance in the neighborhood, the more it leads to the deterioration of the neighborhood, more fear of people and loss of quality of life. Another major consequence of the fear of victimization is the expenses imposed upon the government to reduce fear, including neighborhood watch, crime prevention, citizen awareness programs, and law enforcement.
Research on the fear of victimization in other countries have often dealt with the theoretical foundations, goals and special social, political, cultural and economic situations. It is rather difficult to find a research that covers this research subject and depicts the amount of parental fear of children's victimization. This study aimed to explain why parental fear of children's victimization occurs and to answer how and in what way parental fear of victimization is created in this city.
 
2.Methodology
This survey was conducted using a researcher-made questionnaire via proportional random multistage sampling. In the first phase, District 6 was divided into several areas using stratified sampling. In the second phase, the participants were selected from the divided areas and the researcher surveyed the participants in the same way within the district. To measure the validity and reliability of the study, face validity and content validity were evaluated. SPSS was used for data analysis.
 
3.Results and discussion
The findings suggested a medium to high fear of children's victimization among parents in District 6 was 83% which is quite alarming. On the other hand, the researcher had no access to the official statistics for comparison in order to report the amount of parental fear of children's victimization.
Data analysis based on the hypotheses suggests that the mean parental fear of children's victimization in men was lower compared to women. The study suggested the highest level of parental fear of children's victimization among divorced and widowed parents, those with higher education and higher income, higher social disorganization in the city, dissatisfaction with police performance, and experience of bullying. The regression model in the inferential analysis showed that education level, social disorganization and local connection are directly correlated with parental fear of children's victimization. The higher the level of parental education in District 6, the lower the neighborhood disorganization and the higher the local connection, the lower the parental fear of children's victimization.
 
4.Conclusion
This survey sought to examine parental fear of victimization using theoretical perspective on the fear of children's victimization. Results suggested that the older the parents, the lower the fear of victimization. To explain it, older parents experience lower fear of victimization, because their children are grown ups and avoid risk social activities. Women experience more parental fear of victimization probably due to the individual characteristics and their vulnerability in the patriarchal society of Afghanistan. In Kabul, single, widowed and divorced individuals experience higher parental fear of victimization compared to married ones. According to the theory of social vulnerability, single individuals are more vulnerable to crimes due to their lifestyle and they experience more fear of crime. This fear diminishes with marriage. In addition, results demonstrated that the possibility of children's victimization is related to inappropriate occupation, higher education, ethnicity, local connection, social disorganization, and police performance.
 
5.Selection of References
Alvi, S., Schwartz, M. D., DeKeseredy, W. S., & Maume, M. O. (2001), Women's fear of crime in Canadian public housing. Violence against women, 7(6), pp.638-661.
Ferraro, K. F. & Grange, R. L. (1987), The measurement of fear of crime, inquiry, 57(1),pp. 70-97.
Jansson, K. (2007), British Crime Survey-measuring crime for 25 years, London: Home Office.
Jones, S (2000), Understanding Violent Crime. Buckingham: Open University Press.
Kawachi, I., & Berkman, L. (2000), Social cohesion, social capital, and health, Social epidemiology, pp.174 ,7.
Lane, J., & Meeker, J.W. (2005), Fear of Gang Crime: A Look at Three Theoretical Models, Law & Society Review 37 (2), pp.425-456.
Lee, H. D., Reyns, B. W., Kim, D., & Maher, C. (2020), Fear of crime out west: Determinants of fear of property and violent crime in five states. International journal of offender therapy and comparative criminology, 64(12), 1299-1316.
Pantazis, C. (2000), ’Fear of crime’, vulnerability and poverty, British journal of criminology, 40(3), pp.414-436.
Stollard, P., & Stollard, P. (2003), Crime prevention through housing design. Taylor & Francis.
Warr, M. (2000), Fear of crime in the United States: Avenues for research and policy, Criminal justice, 4(4), pp.451-489.