Perceived community disorder moderates the relation between victimization and fear of crime

In a representative sample of the Italian population (N = 2,002), surveyed in January 2008, we studied the direct and interactive effects exerted on fear of crime by direct and indirect victimization on the one hand and perceived level of disorder of participants’ community on the other hand. Indirect victimization fostered fear of crime among participants reporting high levels of social disorder in their community. However, direct and indirect victimization did not influence fear of crime among participants reporting not to live in a disordered community. Implications and limitations of this work and possible further research directions are discussed.