Perceived risk of crime in the Czech Republic

The perceived risk of crime is now an issue in the Czech Republic in connection with its political, economic and social transformation after 1989. People believe that crime has increased and society is less able to control it with the collapse of the former police state. The perceived risk of crime is examined in the Czech Republic with predictors identified by criminologists and suggested by researchers an perceived risk in the United States. The sample is 740 households in 1994, with 577 husband and wife respondents, 146 single female household heads, and 17 single male household heads. Measures include personal characteristics associated with exposure and vulnerability to crime, trust in the government, economic stress as well as perceived risk of crime. In a series of linear regressions, it was found that a criminology model of perceived risk of crime can be extrapolated to the Czech Republic and trust in the government is an independent and complementary contribution to it.