Life satisfaction and happiness: discussing the impact of fear of crime and victimization

Abstract

Subjective well-being is usually studied with respect to marital and occupational status, income or subjective health. Conversely, research examining the relationship between this phenomenon and crime related factors is still relatively limited. This study therefore aims to extent the current knowledge in this area. Using data from the fifth wave of the European Social Survey for the Czech Republic, in which 2386 respondents participated, we conduct a hierarchical regression analysis to find out to what extent victimization experience and fear of crime influence life satisfaction and happiness of Czechs. The results of the analysis reveal a direct relationship between fear of crime and subjective well-being. On the contrary, victimization affects life satisfaction and happiness indirectly via the fear of crime. Surprisingly, a decrease in life satisfaction is greater for fearful men than fearful women, whereas there are no gender differences regarding the fear of crime – happiness link.

Keywords

• fear of crime
• victimization
• subjective well-being
• gender differences
• ESS R5