범죄피해 및 범죄두려움이 삶의 질에 미치는 영향

Abstract

This study aimed to test the effect of crime victimization and fear of crime on quality of life. To this end, a path analysis model was constructed using survey data of 440 residents in Busan and Daejeon. The analysis result showed that neither crime victimization nor fear of crime had a significant effect on quality of life. Among the variables that were hypothesized to have a direct and indirect influence on quality of life (i.e., sex, indirect crime victimization, physical disorder, social disorder), only physical disorder had a negative direct effect on the dependent variable. It was an outcome contrary to the common sense (myth), and also very much different from that of Rho's research(2013) on juvenile subjects. Although this study was limited to certain neighborhoods in metropolitan areas, it could find its own meaning in that it was the first empirical attempt in Korea to discover the causal relationship between crime and quality of life utilizing general sample of citizens. It was suggested that future research be more general in research areas and more specific in types of crime. Also, a plausible causal model was expected to have a great contribution to this research topic that includes depression, anger, low self-esteem, and PTSD (Posttraumatic stress disorder) as a mediating factor.