POLICING, CULTURE, AND FEAR OF CRIME IN THE KOREAN AMERICAN COMMUNITY

• Pages: 63-87
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1108/S1521-6136(2000)0000002007
• Published date: 20 December 2000
• Date: 20 December 2000
• Author: Min Sik Lee

POLICING, CULTURE, AND FEAR OF

CRIME IN THE KOREAN AMERICAN

COMMUNITY

Min Sik Lee

ABSTRACT

This research examines how the quality of local policing, measured in both

personal- and community-levels, and cultural (or acculturation) factors

influence fear of crime among Korean Americans, drawing on Poole &

Pogrebin’s (1990) ethnographic study of crime and law enforcement

policy in the Korean community. The data consist of 721 adult Korean

Americans residing in 63 communities in metropolitan Chicago who were

sampled from 33 ethnic Korean churches. Findings from hierarchical

linear models indicate that Korean Americans who confide in the local

police in terms of their consideration for minority residents, evaluate the

routine police protection more favorably, and reside in a community which

has a bigger police force size are less likely to be afraid of crime at night

in their neighborhood. Such fear-reducing effects of policing, however,

were not significant for fear of crime during the day. This study also found

that the black visibility in a community was a very critical factor for

Korean Americans’ fear, both at night and during the day.

Sociology of Crime, Law and Deviance, Volume 2, pages 63–87.

Copyright © 2000 by Elsevier Science Inc.

All rights of reproduction in any form reserved.

ISBN: 0-7623-0680-7

63

INTRODUCTION

Fear of crime is widespread in the United States, and has detrimental

consequences for both individuals and communities (Hale, 1996). Further, fear

of crime is conceptually and empirically distinct from actual rates and severity

of crime (Lindquist & Duke, 1982; Smith, 1987).

Several scholars have noted the link between policing-related factors (i.e.

rate of local police force, public confidence in the police or perceived adequacy

of police protection), as an explanatory (or mediating) variable, and fear of

crime. Some of them found evidences to show that the quality of policing in a

local area might be negatively correlated with fear of crime (Baker et al., 1983;

Baumer, 1985; Box et al., 1988).

The potential effect of policing on fear of crime is an important research

agenda since it might suggest practicable (and effective) policy options to

tackle fear. For example, individual and community factors such as age, gender,

race, and crime rates, population composition, economic and housing

conditions in a local area are difficult to manipulate as part of an intervention

strategy to lower fear level, although a substantial proportion of the variation in

fear can typically be explained by those factors. In contrast, however, it would

be less difficult to alter public perception of the quality of policing (Bennett,

1994).

Although fear of crime has been a very important research area in

criminology during the last three decades (see Ferraro & LaGrange, 1987;

Hale, 1996), very little is known about the distribution and etiology of fear

among just-immigrated and small minority groups such as Korean Americans.

This constitutes a gap in the literature on fear of crime in particular and

criminology in general since Korean Americans are a unique cultural group and

constitute a rapidly growing minority in the United States. Poole and

Pogrebin’s (1990) ethnographic study of crime and law enforcement policy in

the Korean community in Aurora, Colorado is especially deserving of note in

these regards. These authors suggest that the quality of policing and cultural

characteristics of an immigrant minority group might be very critical in

explaining reactions to crime.

This study is to investigate the correlates of fear of crime among Korean

Americans,1and especially examines the effects of policing-related factors on

it to learn more about the nature of policing as a potential source of protection

against public worries, drawing on Poole & Pogrebin’s (1990) works. The

current study uses survey data from a sample drawn from Korean American

ethnic churches in the Chicagoland area.

64 MIN SIK LEE