Open Access

The victimization-fear paradox describes the finding that older adults are more afraid of becoming a victim of crime than younger adults, although they are statistically less frequent victims. This result is mainly based on the so-called standard question. In contrast, questions regarding the frequency of experiencing fear of crime and the risk assessment show no age differences. Older adults, however, behave more cautious, which may explain the lower victimization firstly, on the other hand, however, may underestimate the frequency of fear. Within the framework of an action-theoretic approach, the question was how the age-related increase in precautious behavior can be explained. Fear of crime has been worked out within an emotion theoretical approach. In the first three studies the increase of precautious behavior has been studied as an expression of heightened fear caused by an age-related increase in physical vulnerability. Situational fear of crime was induced by means of a vignette technique. While there was a positive relationship between physical vulnerability, situational fear, and precautious behavior, older adults did not generally respond with higher fear. On the contrary, in two vignettes younger adults reported reliably more fear than older adults. In two other studies, age differences were examined in the threat evaluation with a modified affective priming task. Here, young adults showed a larger priming effect than older adults. When time to respond was shortened experimentally, the magnitude of the priming effect increased in both age groups. A negative correlation between the frequency of fear and the size of the priming effect among the older adults provides evidence that (negative) information is processed differently in this age group. The last study explores precautious behavior as an age-related change in gain-risk calculations. Risk behavior might be associated with gains that lose their incentive value with age. Moreover, older adults might have modified ways of avoiding risky behavior. In general, the studies provide insights in the complexity of the subject matter. While situational fear of crime seems not to generally increase with age, the results of the priming studies indicate that care needs to be taken with regard to potential regulation mechanisms in responding to the tasks. Moreover, the findings clarify that an approach has to be taken that employs various measurement techniques as well as an integration of different theoretical advances.