Abstract
This research reports the development and evaluation of a Crime Anxiety Scale and Crime Prevention Consciousness Scale, which were considered to be useful for crime prevention education in elementary school. School children in four elementary schools in Iwate Prefecture and three schools in Tokyo participated in the study (N=1292; 662 boys and 630 girls; 4th to 6th grades). The 30-item school child version of the Crime Anxiety Scale was developed by item analysis and factor analysis. It consisted of three subscales: "anxiety about suspicious people," "anxiety when going outdoors," and "anxiety about crime situations." Next, a 30-item Crime Prevention Consciousness of School Cchildren Scale was developed. It consisted of 6 subscales: "risk aversion," "crime prevention counter-measures when outdoors," "crime prevention countermeasures at home," "communication," "carelessness" and "attention." A study using the scales indicated the following. First, the level of crime anxiety and crime prevention consciousness of girls was higher than among boys. In addition, as the school grade increased these levels of anxiety and consciousness became significantly lower. Second, there were correlations between levels of crime anxiety and crime prevention consciousness. Path analysis suggested that for boys a general rise in level of crime anxiety led to a raise in crime prevention consciousness, such as observation of one's surroundings. However, among girls only high crime anxiety when they went outdoors was connected with increased crime prevention consciousness.
