The effects of sex-related dangerous events that cause harm on awareness of crime prevention: From the perspective of optimism bias

Abstract

The purpose of this research is to investigate the impact sex-related dangerous events that cause harm have on the awareness of crime prevention of female college students from the perspective of optimism bias. Sex-related dangerous events that cause harm were limited to encounters with deviants. Two types of optimism bias were set: optimism bias that compares the certainty of encountering harm with of others (frequency) and optimism bias that compares the severity of the result of encountering harm (degree). Both types of optimism bias were measured using a direct method and an indirect method. A survey was conducted in January 2009 with a sample of 329 female college students in the Chubu region of Japan. The results indicated that the optimism bias (frequency) in cases of encountering harm is low, but does not lead to the formation of an awareness of crime prevention. Also, an analysis was conducted with crime prevention awareness as a dependent variable and encounters with harm and optimism bias (degree) as independent variables, and the direct method indicated that when optimism bias (degree) is high, crime prevention awareness is low, regardless of the presence of harm. In a similar analysis, the indirect method found an interaction, and in cases where harm was encountered, when the optimism bias (degree) is high, the crime prevention awareness is low.