Gender Differences in U.S. College Students’ Fear for Others

This study examines U.S. college students’ fear of crime for others and uses the “doing gender” perspective to help explain gender differences. A sample of 931 college students (421 male students/510 female students and 605 White students/326 Black students) under the age of 30 from a Southeastern public university provided information on fear of crime, fear for others, and other variables often associated with fear of crime. When splitting the sample by gender, results suggest that both male and female college students fear for others, but do so in very different ways. While male students’ fear for others was associated with their personal characteristics (race, age and parental status) and whether they lived with an intimate, female students’ fear for others was most influenced by constrained behaviors and personal fear of crime. Additionally, when testing race specific models, there were not enough minority men to split the sample for men. However, when separating the sample by race for women only, the model generally did not work for non-White women, while the model worked well for White women. Overall, the results suggest that younger individuals’ fear of crime for others is gendered, associated with living status for men and personal fear for women and that racial differences among men and women should be examined in the future.