Influence of traumatic event(s) and location of residence on fear of crime: A case study of undergraduate students in Nigeria

Abstract

This study investigated the influence of experienced traumatic event(s) (High/Low) and place of residence (on campus/off campus) on level of fear of crime among university students. The study adopted a cross-sectional survey design and gathered data from a randomly selected 281 University students. The sample comprises 184 (65.5%) males and 97 (34.5%) females. Hypotheses generated were tested using inferential statistics. The results showed that traumatic event(s) had significant relationship with fear of crime at (r= .394; .05]. Therefore, it was concluded in this study that traumatic event(s) and place of residence are significant independent determinants of fear of crime among university students. School management should hence design strategies which will help in containing crime incidence in university setting, and also try to build more residential male and female hostels on university campus. Key words: Fear of crime, traumatic experience and place of residence