»The Chapman Survey on American Fears

Turning to the crime section of the Chapman Survey on American Fears, the team discovered findings that not only surprised them, but also those who work in fields pertaining to crime.

“What we found when we asked a series of questions pertaining to fears of various crimes is that a majority of Americans not only fear crimes such as, child abduction, gang violence, sexual assaults and others; but they also believe these crimes (and others) have increased over the past 20 years,” said Dr. Edward Day who led this portion of the survey. “When we looked at statistical data from police and FBI records, it showed crime has actually decreased in America in the past 20 years. Criminologists often get angry responses when we try to tell people the crime rate has gone down.”

Despite evidence to the contrary, Americans do not feel like the United States is becoming a safer place. The Chapman Survey on American Fears asked how they think prevalence of several crimes today compare with 20 years ago. In all cases, the clear majority of respondents were pessimistic; and in all cases Americans believe crime has at least remained steady. Specific crimes queried in the survey were: child abduction, gang violence, human trafficking, mass riots, pedophilia, school shootings, serial killing and sexual assault.

Another portion of the Chapman Survey on American Fears dealt with natural disasters, and people’s preparedness. The findings showed that despite widespread fear, the vast majority of those surveyed do not have emergency kits—even in regions hardest hit by natural disasters. Specifically asked about were: tornados and hurricanes, earthquakes, floods, pandemic or epidemic, power outage not due to attack, volcano eruptions, and impact by asteroids.

In our survey we asked a random sample of Americans about dozens of concerns and fears across four major domains:

• Personal fears and concerns
• Fears about the government & immigration
• Concerns about the environment & natural disasters
• Man-made disasters

The remainder of the Chapman Survey on American Fears looks at fear factors.

“Through a complex series of analyses, we were able to determine what types of people tend to fear certain things, and what personal characteristics tend to be associated with the most types of fear,” said Dr. Christopher Bader, who performed the analysis.
Factors Bader and his team looked at included: age, gender, race, work status, education, income, region of the country, urban vs. rural, political preference, religion, TV viewing, and gun ownership.

Through the analysis two key factors emerged: having a lower level of education and also high frequency of television viewing were the most consistent predictors of fear.