Being Feared

The Micro-Dynamics of Fear and Insecurity

Ben Ellis

• Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan
• Year: 2020
• Print ISBN:
  9783030615444
• eBook ISBN:
  9783030615451
• Topic: Social Sciences
• Subtopic: Emotions in Psychology
• Index: Social Sciences

This book presents an alternative approach to understanding fear and crime by examining those who are feared or who cause fear to others, as opposed to those who are fearful of crime. The existing research into the fearful and the fear of crime offers little insight into this particular experience and so this book represents a missing link in our understanding of how fear of crime is understood by all of those that experience it. It draws on some powerful interviews with juveniles, police officers, soldiers, muscular gym-goers and bouncers/doormen who can be interpreted as being feared. This book focuses on the perceptions, emotions and ensuing actions of those who are perceived as a threat to security by others. It provides an in-depth analysis of the perception of fear in interactions, how this is recognised within an encounter, how these perceptions are attributed and reacted upon, how these experiences relate to particular situations, and how they arestructured in ongoing life experiences. It suggests 'pillars' of fear.

© The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2020

B. EllisBeing Fearedhttps://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-61545-1_1

Begin Abstract

1. An Introduction to Being Feared

Ben Ellis¹

(1)

School of Criminology, University of Leicester, Leicester, UK

Ben Ellis

Email: [email protected]

Abstract

This introductory chapter has three functions: (1) to introduce the project and the content of the book including the pillars of fear; (2) to specifically outline the methodologies used to gather the data; (3) to give a short review of the existing literature on this topic, teasing out what the new sociological and criminological questions are regarding this insight into fear of crime. These discussions are based somewhat on broader ideas around the impact of fear of crime and how this research is situated within it.

Keywords

Fear of CrimeBeing FearedFrameworkGoffmanContext

End Abstract

The purpose of this chapter is to provide a concise overview of this book and its research on being feared. In doing so it considers the topic, aims and rationale of the work to follow. It introduces the background to the focus of this research and situates the book within the current perspectives of fear of crime. Shortfalls within the existing research literature are identified and this helps to provide the setting, rationale and context from which this research moves forward. Following sections specify the aims of the project, introduce the data collection methods, and provides a brief overview of literature.

Fear of Crime and Being Feared: A Brief Background

Researchers have long studied the negative impact of fear of crime and the people who experience it (see Farrall and Ditton 2000; Hale 1996). As a topic of public interest, policy study and academic research, the fear of crime has been with us since the 1960s. The origin of these fears, the reasons for their emergence, and an understanding of the processes associated with their emergence has ebbed and flowed since it was first discovered (Farrall and Lee 2009). This is not to suggest that anxieties about crime had never surfaced prior to this point. Rather, from the 1960s and 1970s, we have witnessed a massive growth in the efforts put into understanding and controlling such fears (Jackson, Farrall and Gray 2006) in a more organised and academic fashion. This concerted interrogation has led to diverse areas of debate and understanding. This ranges from (but is not limited to) the understanding of vulnerability (see Goodey 1997; LaGrange and Ferraro 1987), the difficulties of definition (Ferraro and LaGrange 1987; Croake and Hinke 1976) and policies to combat fear of crime (Bennett 1991; Henig and Maxfield 1978). Despite the considerable attention given to this area of study, nearly all studies addressing the fear of crime to date have taken the perspectives of those who have had their own safety threatened and their own security jeopardised; the fearful. As a result, the experiences of being feared have been given far less attention. There have been some powerful individual accounts (see Ellis 1995; Kelley 1988) alongside the work of Day (2009), which was the genesis for this research. The existing research into fear of crime offers little insight into this experience and represents a missing link in our understanding of how fear of crime is understood by all of those that experience it.

This book, therefore, turns to those who are perceived to be threatening, and to those groups that the public views as potential perpetrators of crime; the feared. The research focuses on the perceptions, emotions and ensuing actions of those who are perceived as a threat to security by others in mostly, fleeting encounters. It provides an in-depth analysis of the perception of fear in interactions, how this is recognised within an encounter, how these perceptions are attributed and reacted upon and how these experiences relate to particular situations and how they are structured in ongoing life experiences. All of this is taken from the perspective of being feared. As Day (2009) suggests, fear between people in public spaces is so universal as to almost pass without mention. Yet, for an experience with such universality, there is a dearth of understanding concerning the perspective of the feared. It is in an attempt to explore and redress this deficit to which this research is focused.

Turning the Tables on Fear of Crime: The Aims and Purpose of This Research

In consideration of the perspective this study has taken towards fear of crime, the core purpose of the research is to explore and address the lack of understanding about the experience of being feared. The main aims and objectives of this research were:

1. 1.
   To understand the micro-dynamics of fear from the perspective of those who are perceived by the public and in communities as objects of fear, potential offenders, as ‘fearsome’ and ‘intimidating’.
2. 2.
   To explore how being feared feeds into perceptions of identity, threat and fear and how these perceptions shape the actions of those that perceive themselves to be feared.
3. 3.
   To understand how these actions and perceptions are shaped at the point of interaction.
4. 4.
   To understand the role that fear plays in the production/maintenance of order within personal and/or work-based encounters.

Each of these aims and objectives are addressed within the chapters that follow. It is also important, at this point, to express explicitly what the original contribution to knowledge will be for this research. Taking the perspective of the feared is not an entirely new endeavour (see Day 2009; Ellis 1995; Kelley 1988). This research contributes to the understanding of being feared in four distinct and original ways. First, the research takes a micro-sociological approach to the phenomenon of being feared. Micro-sociology is based on interpretative analysis rather than statistical or empirical observation, and shares close association with the philosophy of phenomenology (Goffman 1974). It is focused on the nature of everyday human interaction and agency on a small scale (Goffman 1974). This focus allows the research to understand the dynamics of fearful encounters in a way that has yet to be understood.

Second, is the decision that was made to use a Goffmanian framework within the research (addressed in more detail in Chapter 2). This follows on directly from the micro-sociological exploration and helps to situate and frame the area of research. By using Goffman, the research is able to frame the moments when people meet face-to-face and define the context in which being feared is realised and understood.

Third, the range of the experiences within the sample differs significantly from previous work concerning this perspective. Ellis (1995) and Kelley (1988) offer personal accounts of being feared. Day (2009) completed a qualitative study of university age males. This research has been designed to explore the experience of being feared from a wide range of contexts. This helps to examine the differences between unique groups but also explores the potential common threads that link the experience of being feared together. This study and its exploration makes no claim to be representative or generalisable to the groups sampled but does offer a wider range of experiences than has hitherto been undertaken. In doing so, it offers a wider starting point from which further research can follow.

Fourth, the study considers the different contexts of being feared by understanding interactions from an everyday and work-based perspective. This contribution is very much linked to the broad range of contexts derived from the sampling process within the research. Fear, within an interaction, can be exacerbated by deeper symbolic and social meanings as understood by those that experience it. By exploring a wider range of people and occupations, the study can understand the significance of these factors on the experience of being feared. In this sense, the research goes beyond an understanding of fearfulness and towards an understanding of being feared.

The Conceptual Approach to the Research

In order to understand the meaning and interpretations inherent in interpersonal communication a conceptual framework based on the work of Erving Goffman has been developed. As previously mentioned, this situates the research on a micro-analytical scale and places it within a symbolic interactionist tradition. The research explains and uses Goffman’s overarching concept of dramaturgy. Alongside this, the research uses the insights from Encounters (1961), the concept of ‘performance’ from The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life (1959) and Frame Analysis (1974) as well as drawing on additional elements from the work of Goffman. Dramaturgy makes it possible to identify that each aspect of a person’s behaviour is essentially expressive in both the giving and the receiving of communicative information. This is essential in understanding the dynamics of fearful situations. Key thematic questions stem from this and will be explored throughout the book. This includes the ways in which people present different expressive identities in different contexts. This helps us to understand the front...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Front Matter
• 1. An Introduction to Being Feared
• 2. An Object of Fear? Setting the Scene for Understanding Being Feared
• 3. Pillars of Fear—Purposeful Fear
• 4. Pillars of Fear: Accidental Fear
• 5. Pillars of Fear: Alleviating Fear
• 6. Pillars of Fear: Competent/Dutiful Fear
• 7. The Importance of Context: The Body, the Desire and the Duty
• 8. Conclusion: The Dynamics of Being Feared—The Polarity of Intensions
• Back Matter