Scared Sick: Relating Fear of Crime to Mental Health in Older Adults

Abstract

The factors that determne the health and well-being of older populations are increasingly recognized as critical public health issues. The focus of this review article is to provide evidence for the role of fear of crime in determining the mental health of older populations. The fear of crime is a complex construct, as the vast majority of fear is not related to actual rates of victimization. Here, we synthesize the literature on fear of crime and how the physical and social environment can profoundly affect mental health outcomes. The review presents some plausible physiological mechanisms by which fear of crime may directly or indirectly affect the life span development of the brain to modulate mental health in an effort to aid further development of research in this area.