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; <.01); however, further correlation coefficient reveals that traumatic event(s) accounted for about 39% variance in fear of crime. Results from this study revealed that students who reside off campus reported higher fear of crime than those who reside on campus [F (1, 277) = 202.06; <.05]; while also students with higher experienced traumatic event(s) reported higher fear of crime than those with low experienced traumatic event(s) [F (1, 277) = 40.16; <.05]. However, place of residence and traumatic event(s) were reported to have no interactive effect on fear of crime [F (1, 277) = 3.25; P>.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