Chennai: Crime rates have plummeted across the State due to the Covid-19 lockdown. This has come as a breather for many including the State police department.
Theft, robbery, murders and road accidents are not taking place. But, this has not erased the fear in minds of people even as they stay indoors day and night, a study says.
Michael L Valan, Assistant Professor from Department of Criminology and Police Administration, D G Vaishnav College conducted a study using Google Forms, “Research on Fear of Crime during Covid-19 Lockdown Period.”
The study says that 30 per cent of the population have fear of crimes such as theft, robbery, dacoity, bank frauds, online frauds, Intimate Partner Violence (IPV) or sexual victimisation.
One in three persons have fear of being victimised by any form of crime. The survey had 539 respondents from varying age groups exploring the possibility of crimes inside their houses.
The research stated that the contributing factors to fearfulness among people were: hearsay news and social media, television news, newspapers, responses from government and staying away from home.
The survey had 12 questions in four sections asking respondents about fear of being victim of crime during this time, fear of possibility of dacoity, fearful of being a victim of attack and robbery, fear of losing valuables such as laptops and gadgets or being subjected to cyber crime victimisation, as there is a surge since lockdown on people using online apps for paying bills and transferring funds.
The respondents were asked to mark from one to five, one being the least and five being highly fearful. So, how updated are the respondents on current affairs?
Among those took part in the survey, 54 per cent said they had television as their source of information, while 33 per cent relied on various apps and social media, seven per cent read news papers and 9.1 per cent gathered news through conversations from friends and families.
On an average the respondents said they spent an average of 1.78 hours on social media. Overall, 49 per cent had a fear of becoming a victim had crime.
The survey found that 22.4 per cent feared that when they go out for grocery shopping they might be robbed of their phone or wallets. 9.1 percent had substantial fear, while, 59.3 per cent had no such fear.
In some villages, a few houses were vandalised by alcoholics. Responding to such a question, 28.9 were minimally fearful and 64.3 per cent had no fear of their houses being vandalised.
Even while staying in their houses, 38 per cent expressed fear of their properties, cash, gold and costly accessories being stolen.
However, the highest fear among people was regarding net banking and online transaction of money related to credit card or bank account misappropriation. 57.8 per cent of the respondents had an overall fear, out of which 20.6 per cent were highly fearful that their bank information could be stolen.
Another 53.1 per cent said they feared being a victim of e-mail bombing, online virus attack, phishing and pornography.
Interestingly, as many as 62 percent feared being cheated by several persons and platforms asking for donations for Covid-19 relief.
Nearly, 35 per cent had fear of their belongings and properties kept at work places being damaged or stolen. Out of the 432 respondents who were married, 31.9 per cent had an overall fear of domestic violence and IPV.
To the question of female sexual victimisation during a lockdown, 32 per cent have the fear for the female members of their families being victimised.
The survey also analysed the factors contributing to fear of crime. While 55.4 per cent said hearsay news and social media was a factor, 33.9 per cent said watching televsion news added to fears. 21.1 per cent attributed it to newspaper articles, 30.3 per cent said the lack of police presence and police stations not taking complaints was a reason.
Among the survey respondents, 30 per cent were graduates, 32 per cent were post graduates, 18 per cent had school education and 11 per cent had no formal education.