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After more than ten years of the United States (U.S.)-Mexico's War on Drugs, Mexico continues to experience a crisis of public insecurity. This crisis has contributed to several Mexican cities being described as some of the most dangerous in the world. Drawing on qualitative research methods, this study investigates the effect of increasing perceptions of public insecurity on individuals' habits and behaviors in 46 municipalities in the states of Mexico City, Estado de Mexico, Tamaulipas, and Oaxaca. Data is collected through in-depth interviews in urban areas (N = 184). The results provide public policy insights that could address the crisis of insecurity. An assertion is made that to reform the communities investigated, social violence must be tackled, and we attempt to provide a blueprint for such an initiative in this study. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

El presente estudio analiza los factores que pudieran estar implicados en la percepción de inseguridad por parte de los habitantes de 69 barrios de Barcelona a partir de la posible influencia de los vecindarios colindantes. Se construyeron una serie de variables a partir de distintas fuentes con el objetivo de medir la influencia de estas en la inseguridad percibida por parte de los residentes. Los modelos de regresión de mínimos cuadrados ordinarios se han sustituido por otros que consideran la dependencia espacial de los datos. Los resultados muestran que cuando se controla la influencia de los barrios adyacentes la heterogeneidad étnica, la satisfacción con los servicios policiales, el desorden social y el estatus socioeconómico se relacionan significativamente con la inseguridad percibida en cada barrio. No obstante, cuando se corrige la autocorrelación espacial, la densidad delictiva en el barrio no está relacionada con la percepción de inseguridad y tampoco existe evidencia clara de que esta esté afectada por los niveles delictivos en los barrios adyacentes.

This research analyses the factors that could be involved in the insecurity perceived by the inhabitants of 69 neighbourhoods in Barcelona from the possible influence of the adjacent neighbourhoods. A set of variables are constructed from different sources to measure their influence on the insecurity perceived by residents. Ordinary least-squares regression models were replaced by others that consider the spatial dependence of the data. The results show that when controlling for the influence of adjacent neighbourhoods, ethnic heterogeneity, satisfaction with police services, social disorder, and socio-economic status are significantly related with the insecurity perceived in each neighbourhood. However, when spatial autocorrelation is corrected, crime density in the neighbourhood is not related to perceptions of insecurity, nor there is clear evidence that insecurity is affected by crime levels in adjacent neighbourhoods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Crowding emerges in three dimensions: tangible, attitudinal and perceptual. • Positive attitude towards crowding depends on non-transportation information. • Crowding multipliers in regarding the users' attitude for different levels of overcrowding were obtained. • Perceived discomfort and perceived insecurity depend on standing passenger density. Understanding in-vehicle crowding is crucial to improving public transportation service levels. Although in-vehicle crowding has usually been studied as a tangible attribute, previous research has shown that the standing passenger density cannot fully explain the experience of crowding. In the present work, we used the hybrid discrete choice modeling approach in order to provide a richer explanation of in-vehicle crowding in a choice context between Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) and Metro, using Bogotá as a case of study. Modeling results showed that perceived discomfort, perceived insecurity, waiting time, fare, travel time, and its interaction with the positive attitude towards crowding, are the main variables in explaining the choice process. We found that the positive attitude towards crowding affects the perception of the standing passengers' density level. We demonstrated that this attitude depends on non-transportation information since people who live in larger spaces, as well as people who live in apartments, have a greater positive attitude towards crowding. We obtained crowding multipliers in regarding the users' attitude for different levels of overcrowding and analyze several policies related to latent variables. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study explores the correlates of perceived insecurity among the households in Pakistan. For this purpose, data from the third round of Pakistan Panel Household Survey are merged with terrorist incidents taken from Global Terrorism Database. The results illustrate that objective risk, signified by violence in the district of residence, and victimization play an important role in the formation of perceived insecurity. Moreover, males and residents of rural areas feel more insecure than females and urban residents, respectively. Furthermore, spatial variation in violence indicates that terrorist attacks in the first-order contiguous districts (i.e. the immediate neighbors) are also associated with subjective insecurity. These are crucial findings because behavioral changes, such as perceived insecurity, could force the households to make suboptimal investment decisions. More importantly, since changes in behavioral parameters may be highly persistent, this study cautions that violence in Pakistan may have potentially long-term impacts on social welfare. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Social disorganization has become a significant issue for social geography. In addition, the territoriality of urban space is deeply embedded in social relations. At the local level, the type of local support for the social community and the role of the urban actors involved are a critical issue. Moreover, city centre redevelopment emphasises commercial growth that advances private interest entrepreneurships whilst the revitalisation of neglected neighbourhoods is a lower priority for the local authorities. Urban violence and the increasing sense of insecurity are phenomena which affect the quality of life. This article focuses on perceived urban (in)security within Bucharest using the results of questionnaires conducted in 36 districts of the city.

Aims: This article aims to (1) explore the levels of perceived insecurity in a sample of patients with mood or anxiety disorders and (2) assess whether living in ‘big cities’ can influence the levels of patients’ perceived insecurity and social contacts compared to living in a non-urbanized context. Methods: A total of 24 Italian mental health centers (MHCs) have been invited to participate. Twenty patients consecutively accessing the MHC have been recruited. All patients have been assessed using validated assessment tools. Results: The sample consisted of 426 patients, mostly female, with a mean age of 45 years. Globally, 52.2% of patients had a diagnosis of mood disorders, and 37.8% had anxiety disorders. Half of the sample declared that the main feeling toward life is uncertainty; higher levels of pessimistic views toward life have been detected in patients living in urban areas. A positive association between negative attitudes toward life and higher levels of depressive and anxiety symptoms, poor social functioning and higher levels of perceived psychological distress has been found. Conclusion: Our findings confirm the presence of a common sense of perceived uncertainty among our sample. Such attitude toward life can have a detrimental impact on patients’ psychological and physical well-being, contributing to high levels of distress. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Fear of crime is one of the most important problems in our cities, even in low-crime rate areas. The aim of this paper is to provide evidence of the issues involved in the perceived risk of victimization and fear of crime in these contexts using the Structural Equation Model (SEM) technique. Five hundred and seventy-one people living in a working-class neighborhood of Barcelona answered a 45-item questionnaire including the following 7 constructs: perception of insecurity, previous threat experiences, social representations of insecurity, personal control and coping skills, potential aggressors, urban identity, and perceived environmental quality. Findings confirm the theoretical model, in which fear of crime is structurally related to: a) environmental features, b) personal variables, and c) social representation of unsafe places. In addition, we found that the role of social aspects is as important as that of environmental and psychological ones. Residential satisfaction and urban social identity appear as relevant variables. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

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Copyright of Socialinis Darbas is the property of Mykolas Romeris University and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Sociologists have not attempted to explain the causes of higher levels of perceived job insecurity among racial/ethnic minorities than those of Whites in privileged occupations. This study examines two possible explanations for this finding among White, African American, and Latino professionals and managers. The first emphasizes the discrimination-induced, structural marginality experienced by minorities in the workplace (the marginalized-worker perspective), and the second emphasizes learned dispositions--i.e., fatalism and mistrust--that are brought to the workplace (the dispositional perspective). Using data from the General Social Survey (GSS) and ordered probit regression analyses for both men and women, our findings provide greater support for the marginalized-worker perspective. Results reveal African Americans and Latino men and women have a greater fear of job loss than their White counterparts, regardless of their human capital credentials (e.g., education, work experience) and job/labor market advantages (e.g., job authority, job autonomy, unionized status, favorable market sector). Along these lines, these traditional, stratification-based predictors provide greater insulation from perceived job insecurity for Whites than racial/ethnic minorities. Less support is found for the dispositional perspective: one disposition--fatalism--is associated with greater fear of job loss for African American men and women compared to Whites. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]