| dc.description.abstract | Crime has been identified as one of the
biggest forces shaping city life due to the levels of fear
it triggers. The piece of work aims to discuss the
aspects of the social construction of fear of crime,
particularly within the inner-city settlements in Sri
Lanka’s commercial capital city of Colombo. Thus, the
study collected community views by conducting focus
group discussions and including 20 participants from
“Ginthupitiya” and “Messenger Street” in Colombo
Central. It was also established that contextual factors
such as lack of proper lighting and relatively poor
infrastructure contribute substantially to the feeling of
fear. Also, these fears are compounded by; age, gender
and past experiences of victimization. In these areas,
the population meets the most important prerequisites – food, clothing, and other primary needs, giving less
attention to the crime problem. Fear of crime is more
of a concern of the second level than the urgency of the
fight for decent living standards. Fear has penetrated
the everyday practices of many citizens, and they have
got used to ‘being ready’ for a danger lurking around
every corner | en_US |
