Do inequalities predict fear of crime? Empirical evidence from Mexico

Deeply rooted in the social disorganization theory, this article aims at studying causal impact of local inequality, a main community structural factor, on individuals’ fear crime. Combining multiple datasets and focusing Mexican case, study has several goals. First, we construct an innovative index crime composed three dimensions: emotion, cognition behavior. Second, build measures income education inequality representative municipal level. Lastly, assess effect inequalities crime, controlling both for hierarchical structure data endogeneity bias relying two-stage least squares (2SLS) multilevel models. Our results suggest strong positive linear relationship between However, observed is stronger emotive behavioral dimensions. Concerning also find feeling unsafety (emotive dimension), but smaller magnitude, risk perception (cognitive dimension). While our are robust to different robustness checks they less stable inequality.