Boise State University Graduate College Defense Committee and Final Reading Approvals

The following individuals read and discussed the thesis submitted by student Jonathan Bolen, and they evaluated his presentation and response to questions during the final oral examination. They found that the student passed the final oral examination. iv DEDICATION For Zoe and Angela, the calm in my storm, the anchor of my ship. v ABSTRACT Previous research investigating fear of crime has returned little universal agreement as to what exacerbates and what reduces an individual's level of fear of crime. In this thesis the researcher seeks to add to the mountain of literature on fear of crime and to include a novel independent variable, religiosity, in effort to better inform the fear of crime debate. Analyzing survey data collected from students at an urban university, the researcher finds that (1) females are far more fearful than their male counterparts; (2) religiosity is not informative on varying levels of fear of crime in the sample. An unintended finding was strong instruments to further investigate a possible religiosity/fear of crime relationship that are available to future researchers. The results of this research indicate that fear of crime is a complex phenomenon, and is in need of further research.